An Experiment Gone Wrong?(Rewrite)
by Wristan
Summary: Broderick had always ended up doing what other told him to do as he was growing up. Though he never thought he would end up down where he was. Will he finally escape his dreaded past or will it continue to haunt him for the rest of his life?
1. Chapter 1

Greetings Everyone,

Welcome to the rewrite of "An Experiment Gone Wrong?" Those who are new to the scene, the previous version of this story hit a wall that I was having difficulty getting past. So I decided to take some time off and go back through what I had to try to rekindle what I was aiming for. I've gotten different feedback from people that said, "the previous version was good or it was "off-putting." So I appreciate any constructive criticism to help me know how to improve.

I left the previous version up just in case anyone want to read the difference and compare. Just note that if you don't want to find out about spoilers about events that will still take place, don't read the previous version. I was originally trying to put out two chapters per month, but that didn't go well once I hit chapter 14. So I'd like to get a chapter a month, but it may take longer. If anything come up that will put a delay longer then two months I'll make sure to note that on my profile page.

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You didn't have the most pleasant time growing up and had it worst then most children have it at his age. Your parents didn't really care about you and just found you a nuisance, they would have gotten rid of you sooner, but they thought they could make use of you. The neighborhood you lived in was run down and felt you could been shot, stabbed, or mugged at any giving point. Your house had very little in it which made since seeing as your parent hardly stuck around. The living room had a couple worn out chairs and a really beat up television set.

You never knew if it worked or not, but judging that they never used it probably meant it didn't. Your room literally had nothing in it. You didn't even have anything to sleep on. The only thing you got from that room was the chilled air outside at night and bugs crawling over you while you slept. At times you didn't know how you manage to survive, the only source of food you were giving is whatever scraps that came your way. The deadbolt to you room that your parents kept on the door prevented you from getting out.

At the age of six you found your parents were teaching you questionable things, but being so young you didn't know any better. You were taught how to pick peoples pockets and shoplift items. It was perfect for them, if you got caught it was no skin off there backs. A few times they brought you to a casino were they spent most of their time. They spent money like crazy, even going so far to deal with lone sharks.

They also had a heavy drinking problem as well and often had you shoplift from stores for alcohol. As you got a little older you found a way out of your room through the wall, but not knowing where to go and having little interaction in world outside you were forced to return. So you spent the time looking through garbage bins to find any useful items. You managed to find an old blanket, sure it had some holes in it, but it was literally better then nothing. You hid these items under a loose floor board in your room, afraid if your parents found them they would take them away.

As you got older you got caught more often then not when stealing items for your parents. They would be furious with you, calling you useless and beat you before throwing you back into your room. Around the age of ten you heard talking in the house from men asking about, "their money" and if they don't pay there would be consequences. A few day later you found yourself being dragged down the street on a leash like you were some kind of animal. Finally you stopped at an ally way with a light that was functioning, flickering on and off.

You're not sure how much time had passed, but you were shivering from the cold in the rags that barely covered your body. Then you saw someone approaching and your parents turned to greet him. They whispered back and forth, but you couldn't make out what was being said. Your parents handed the man the leash you were on, handed your parents an envelope, then they nodded to each other. You watch your parent walk off not even acknowledging your exists anymore.

The man injects you with something and your eyes grow heavy and you lose consciousness. When you awaken you find yourself on a cold steel bed and bright lights beaming down upon you. You see men and women in white coats talking about stuff that you didn't understand. On computer screens there are word and diagrams, but nothing you could make out. One of the men walk up to you when he noticed that you were awake.

He grabs the leash, "Please come with me." he say as he pulls you along. You didn't know what was going on, but the only reason you weren't panicking at this point was the shock you were in. You enter a room with a bench attached to the wall and a metal door in front of you. The man is brief when he speaks, "Please remove your clothes and place them in the trash." You do as he says and then he pushes you forward and the metal door swings open.

You are then pushed inside and fall to the ground as the door shuts behind you. You here a robotic voice speak out, "Cleansing and decontamination in process." So many different things sprayed you and when it was over the door open. Dazed and still confused about what is going on you see the man from before hand you a towel, "Please follow me." You stood there not moving and the man sighs as he grabs the leash still around your neck. He pulls you along into another room with a large platform in it.

You did your best to dry yourself along the way and the man takes you up a couple of ramps to the top of a platform. He removes the collar around your neck and takes your towel, "Please stand here and don't move." As soon as the man was clear you saw something move above you as a cylinder is lowered around you. Now fear started to set in as you pound your fist against the glass cylinder screaming to be let out. Though no one seems to be able to hear you or were simply ignoring you.

As you keep trying you feel something hit the back of your neck and as you look up you see some sort of liquid entering. You keep pounding on the glass, heart racing, as the liquid fills quickly and is now at about waist level to you. You were now fully panicking and crying as your attempts for help fell on deaf ears. The liquid was hard to move in and soon the entire cylinder was filled. The strange part was you found after trying to hold your breath find you could breathe just fine.

You find that you couldn't really move as the weird gel like substance kept you from doing so. You watch a mechanical arm comes down out of the corner of your eye. It had a syringe on the end of it and slowly moved towards your left arm. You want to get way from it, but even if you could there wasn't any place you could go. You felt it prick your arm and something warm enter your body.

Your eyes were darting around wildly, mind racing, as you suddenly felt more pain then you ever have in your life. It wasn't long before you couldn't handle it and you black out. As you begin to stir and come to, you notice that you were laying down and are in a small room. It felt almost like your room, but the only difference was there is stuff in it and was in prime conditioning. You are laying on the bed, you look over to see a mirror, sink, and toilet. You sit up, feeling a little dizzy and felt something fuzzy brush the back of your neck.

You turn to see what it is, but don't see anything when you do. You stand up and make your way to the sink. Turning on the water you wash your face and look into the mirror. What you see catches you off guard. You notice that your hair color has changed, no longer brown, but purple with some white weaved in-between it, alternating. What really drew your attention was your ears, at least your think that they're yours. You reach up and touch them and they twitch as you do so.

The ears had a similar color, purple with white at the tips, but then you notice something move behind you. You turn, but it seems to move along with you. You finally reach back with both of your hands and grab whatever it is. What you find is a purple tail ending with white on the tip. You pull on it which was a bad idea as you felt pain shoot through your body and you tense up from it. You continue to examine yourself and notice you are wearing a gray shirt and gray pants.

You take them off for a moment and notice you had fur on your chest, but only on the left and right side ending in a v-shape. Your forearms also had single stripe of fur going up to your shoulder and all the way down where it ended on the back of your hands. Your legs were almost the same as your arms, a single stripe of fur starting from your thighs down to the top of your feet. The color of fur the same purple and the tip of the fur had white.

You turn to look at your back and notice the same pattern as your chest. You didn't seem to have whiskers and you still looked mostly human. You noticed your human ears were gone like they never existed. You look at you hands and your finger nails are also gone, but you notice little slits in the tips of your fingers. You pinch one of your finger in-between your index finger and thumb.

Out of the slit you see what looks like a claw come out and as you let go it retracts. You put the shirt and pants back on and notice numbers in the corner of the shirt that reads, "Zero-Zero-One." You try to recall all the events, but are interrupted as the door to your room opens. Three people stepped inside, a women and two men behind her. She looks over at her clipboard she's carrying as she explains some stuff to you. She congratulates you on being the first to survive the procedure you've undertaken.

She explains that you've been genetically altered and they would like to ran some scans to make sure everything is stable. The two men move behind you and she turns to walk out with you in tow. You're brought to a room where you're hooked up to a machine. They look over the readings and you hear them say different things, "Results look promising, this is the first subject to survive, we maybe able to move to phase two." You are lead back to your room and told someone would be along shortly with some food. After you ate someone told you lights out and the lights in your room turned off.

You lay down on the bed and even with the dim light in your room you could see in the dark rather well. You didn't even realize how tired you were until you fell asleep. The next few weeks go by as they give you tasks to perform, the first which is learning how to extend your claws and manipulate them. You learned that they could extend up to three inches in length and you could curve them or straighten them out. You could also make them thinner or thicker in the width.

It was tricky to get the hang of, but you slowly got better at it over the weeks to come. Next they had a steel dummy attached to a pole on the floor. They asked you to attack it with you claws and as you do they went through like it was made of tin foil. They were excited with the results and moved you on to many other test. In your room you had gone about marking the days that have gone by with your claws into the walls.

You counted that at least a year has gone by and you must be eleven at this point. As you lay on your bed and add another day to the wall you hear talking outside your door. It was muffled, but you got up and put an ear to the door. "Yes, that is correct. You are to remove the experiment and take it to that location to be disposed of. I know, but those are our orders. Follow them out." With that the door opens and you leap back and see a big hulking figure of a man that is well over six feet tall. He walks over and grabs your arm, before you pull away you feel him prick you with something.

Everything grows blurry and you go limp as the last thing you hear is, "Alright little kitty, time for you to take a little catnap and disappear." Everything goes black after that. You wake up to a sudden jolt and you are laying on a metal surface and it feels like you are moving. You try to get up, but you felt numb and your muscles wouldn't respond. You did your best to look around and you saw an orange tint in the sky.

You're not sure how much time went by, but finally you hear a screech and are flung forward. You hear a door open and shut as someone is walking loudly to the back. The doors open up and you are picked up by the man from before. He tucks you under his arm and starts walking with you. You do your best to see where you are, but you have no idea.

After a few minutes you see what is a cavern and he steps inside. It's a short trip inside and as he stops he holds you out over a huge hole with a grin on his face, "Well little kitty this is were your tail of a tale ends." He lets you go and you plummet down the hole, you hear the air rush by you to what you expect to soon be your death. You think to yourself, " _Well, maybe in death I can find what I could never find in life."_ You close your eyes and moments later you feel the impact of solid ground and black out as darkness takes you away.

You stir and slowly open your eyes as you look up to see dim light coming in from the hole you fell down. You just lay there and give a half-hearted chuckle, " _Seems even death doesn't want someone as pathetic and useless as me. So I'm to rot away down here and slowly die, all alone."_ You sit up, but as you attempt to stand you feel some pain shoot up your leg. You look down and notice the area around you ankle is swollen. You blurt out loud, "Great, now I can't even walk around and explore what is to be my grave." You sigh to yourself.

As you sit there to pondering what to do next you hear what sounds like soft footsteps approaching. You do your best to be in a defensive posture with your claws at the ready. Though what you see enter makes you freeze in surprise and shock. You see is a small child enter the room, about the same height as you and possible the same age. Its appearance is that of a... goat?

He doesn't take notice of you at first as he has his back to you, as he looks around the cavern your in. You forgot about your injury for a moment as you try to stand and wince in pain. It seems that little bit of noise caught his attention as he is now looking at you. He walks up to you, stopping but a few feet away, "Howdy, I'm Asriel Dreemurr. You look like you fell down here and your ankle looks to be in really bad shape." He takes a moment as he walks around you and your eyes stay trained on as he does.

As he finishes, he stops to your left side, "Golly, Are you a human? You kind of look like one, but I don't remember the humans from the books I've read having tails and cat ears." This was just to much for you as the pain in you ankle was getting the better of you. You slump forward and he catches you. You then hear what sounds like another set of footfalls heading this way. You look over to see another goat-like creature wearing that of a purple robe with some symbols on it, but much taller and older.

"Asriel Dreemurr, how many times have I told you not to run-" She stop mid-sentence as she notices Asriel holding you, "Sorry mom, but I found what I think is a human and he's hurt." She walks over and examines your injury, "Oh my child this looks broken. Did you fall down here?" You were going to say something, but your eyes felt heavy as the pain and events take there toll on you. Before you pass out the child goat-creature, the one who introduced himself as Asriel asks you a question, "Um, could you tell us your name?"

"Broderick." you say barely above a whisper before passing out. Toriel gently takes you from Asriel and gently scoops you up in to her arms. Her and Asriel hurry out of the cavern with you as they head back home.


	2. Chapter 2

As you sleep you dream of the trials and test you went through in the laboratory. You stand at a distance watching a large creature with fangs, horns, and wings enter the domed room you are in. The wings on its back to small to serve any real purpose to the beast. As its eyes lock on to you it charges toward you. You do your best to dodge the attack by rolling out of the way, but it ends up clipping your left leg.

You power through the pain as it turns to follow up with another charge. Instead of rolling out of the way, you leap up and land on its back. It runs into the steel wall of the room in an attempt to knock you off and onto the ground. You cling on for dear life with your claws dug in its back. As it comes around for its next charge you take the opportunity to slice through it's tough hide.

You reach into the wound and start tearing and ripping flesh from the beast. The blood seeping out of the injury starts to take its toll after a while it's breathing becomes more labored and it's staggers about. You reach in deep and grab what feels like it's spine. You pull and tare out a small section of it. It's movements come to a halt as it begins to topple.

You jump clear, rolling, and come to a kneeling position. You stand and limp away from the injury to your leg, but then the wound heals as you continue towards the exit of the dome arena. You smile knowing you've taking down another one of their beast in combat. You bolt awake, sweat clinging to your shirt as you look about the unfamiliar surroundings around you. You take a few deep breaths to calm yourself and pull the covers off.

As you do you noticed that your leg appears to be in a cast and the scratches that you have are bandage as well. As you take in the room you were in you take note of the furnishings. There was a single bed, which you currently were in, a dresser, a study desk with chair, a chest of some sort at the foot of the bed, and a golden flower on top of the dresser. The room was cozier then any room you have ever encountered in you life so far. You recall the last events before you blacked out and remember two goat-like creatures.

" _Am I in their home or am I hallucinating?"_ like on cue to answer your question you hear the door open and the child from before enter the room. If you remember correctly you believed his name was Asriel. You both just look at each other for a moment before he bounds over to the bedside, "Oh good you're awake. We were getting worried about you; you've been out for three day straight since we found you and at certain times be thrashing about in your sleep. You were feverish and we did our best to hold you down until it passed."

You seemed to remember having a lot of dreams about your past as of late. Along with the fever it must have effected you more then normal. "So you said your name was Broderick, right? Did you fall down here after climbing Mt. Ebott? Why would you do that in the first place, don't you know about the legends?" You shake your head at his question, "No, this is my first time to this area, I got lost while exploring and yes that is my name." You decide it was best not to tell him the real reason how you ended up down here.

"Well if you're feeling okay would you like something to eat? Mom will be happy to know your up and she's currently making lunch now." Your stomach growls as you remember it has been around four days since your last meal. You nod and attempt to stand, but Asriel stops you before you can, "Sorry, but you probably shouldn't be walking on your ankle. It was in really bad shape when we found you." You nearly forgot about the cast on your leg as you poke at, "It really doesn't hurt, I think I can manage on my own, but if you want I'll let you help me."

Before he could stop you again you hop up on your feet, adjusting to the cast as it caused you to be a bit off balanced. "See I'm fine, all that bed rest seems to help me recover." Asriel looks at you in disbelief, "I don't want to jinx it, but an injury like that should take more then three days to fully recover." You try to think about what to say without giving away to much. You weren't sure if you should trust him yet or not.

"No one knows why, but I always seemed to heal quicker then most people. It really has made things easier for me when I get hurt." Again another lie, but not a complete one. He still giving you a questionable look. You put an arm around him, "Look if it'll put your mind at ease I'll accept some help. You said something about lunch and I could really go for something right about now." He just smile and nod as he helps support you.

You walk down the hallway taking in the house as you go. You both reach the kitchen where you notice the goat lady from before. Asriel speaks up, "Hi mom, our guest has woken up." She turns to face both of you, "Hello my child, my name is Toriel. I'm glad to see you have recovered, but you shouldn't really be walking around yet."

"I said the same thing, but he said that his leg didn't hurt anymore and he heals quickly."

"Even so, you should still take it easy until we are sure you have recovered enough to be doing so. Why don't you both take a seat at the table and I'll bring you some lunch." You both nod and do so. After being helped onto the chair, you turn to Asriel, "So I'm wondering, are you a goat?" Asriel looks at you confused for a minute, but smile, "No, I'm a monster, everyone in the underground is. You're the first human... now that I think about it, are you human?" you nod.

"But you have fur, a tail, and ear all of which resembles a cat. I mean I haven't seen a human up close before, but the ones in the books we have down here the humans look different then you do. Have humans changed since then?" You try to think what to say, "Um, well humans still look the same as from what are in those books. I'm probably the one exception to the rule, but I really don't want to talk about it." Asriel looks a bit sad, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring up anything that would make you uncomfortable."

"It's okay, I mean as it's your first time seeing a human and its my first time seeing a monster." Asriel perks up a bit, "Well can I ask you about the surface? What's it like? Tell me about things like the sun, the stars, the moon, and what different season are like." You just chuckle at his curiosity over these things, but to be truthful you hardly seen them yourself. "I wish I could tell you, but I sort of lived a sheltered life before falling down here. So what I did see was brief and I never got to take a lot of it in."

His tail and ears droop, "Oh, I'm sorry. Is that part of the reason you ended up down here?" You just decide to nod to the question not really in the mood to talk about it further. The food arrived after that which help steer the tension away from difficult subjects begin brought up. Once you were done with lunch Toriel looks over your ankle and notice all the swelling was gone along with all the scratches. You had a sheepish look on your face when she looked at you.

"My child, it seems you have fully recovered. I must say I never encountered a human who healed this quickly before." This caught your interest, "So you met humans before?" She nods, "Before we came to live down here monster lived in peace with the humans on the surface, but war broke out and humans nearly wiped out all monsters. A few humans who were friends during the time of war helped as many of us as they could and sealed us down here with a barrier."

You cocked your head as you asked, "What barrier? Is it like a fence or something?" She chuckles, "It is a magical barrier that humans from long ago had placed to keep us down her."

"So your saying you can't leave and that everyone down here is trapped? Wait, is that including me as well?" They both nodded and Toriel spoke, "That's right my child and there is only two ways that one can get through the barrier. One is the power of seven human souls to break the enchantment or a Soul that is a fusion of both a monster and human Soul."

"You mean like a spirits or ghost type Souls?" They both chuckled again and you were even more confused. Asriel reached up to his chest and you see a small upside down gray heart appear in front of him, "This is a Soul and is the culmination of your very begin." You blink at it for a second, "Huh, so I have one as well. Is it like yours?" Toriel shakes her head, "Human Souls are more stronger then monster Souls and can persist after death. When a monster dies they're Soul along with there body will turn to dust. With the exception of a select few monsters which are referred to as, "Boss monsters." Their Souls can remain after death for a few moments before they will shatter and turn to dust."

This was all new information to you, "I think this is all going to take some time to adjust to, but I think I understand everything you've told me so far."

"So my child, I would like to ask what kind of education you had up on the surface. I would like to come up with a curriculum for you while you stay with us down here."

"I don't even know what curriculum means or education." Toriel let out a gasp in disbelief, "Are you saying you haven't had any schooling up on the surface?"

"I led a sheltered life for the most part. I hardly saw much other then the four walls of my room." Toriel got up, "Well that won't do, I won't let a child, especially one of your age go any longer without an education." The next few weeks went by as Toriel was laid into you heavy on different subjects like math, science, history, social studies and geography. At times it felt like your brain was going to melt.

You laid you head down on the desk on top of the book you were reading and took a break from your studies. Toriel had been looking over your shoulder most of the day. You weren't sure how much time has went by since you started today. You thought to yourself, " _It had been a while since Toriel has last checked up on me_." which was odd. You stand up making your way over to the open door and enter the hallway and as you do you see Toriel standing down the hall a bit with a worried expression.

You walk up to her, "Toriel what's wrong? You look like something is bother you."

"I've been looking for Asriel, I sent him to pick up some supplies in Snowdin, but he's yet to return and its getting late." This got you worried, all the time you spent with the Dreemurr family you've grown attached to them, Asriel most of all. You run back into your shared bedroom and slip your shoes on. You run past Toriel as you call out, "I'll go look around for him, I'm sure he just lost track of time or something."

She was about to say something, but you are out the door before she could. You could check the underground quickly, but thought it wise to get some help. You made your way down to the training room where a blue fish-like monster by the name of Undyne was working out. She was new trainee for the Royal Guard and you only knew it was her from Asgore description of her. She was being very loud and destructive.

You weren't even sure how to approach her and just decide to go for it and walked up to her, "Um, Undyne can I talk with you for a minute?" She stops beating the tar out of one of the dummies long enough to talk to you, "What the hell do you want? Can't you see I'm busy training." You explain the situation to her, "So I was hoping you could help me search for Asriel."

She puts her hand to her chest, "Of course I'll help, anything I can do to help the King and Queen. We'll find the missing Prince in no time with my help." She charges out of the room before you could talk about where to look for him and sigh. " _Well Undyne knows the underground better then I do, but we still should have agreed on a place to meet back up at."_ You've been keeping a ability you have from the Dreemurr's, but at the time you didn't trust them.

Magic wells up in your legs as your off like a blur. The ability you have hastened your speed and could allow you to run the entire underground in seconds, but you lack knowledge of every nook and cranny which is why you got Undyne's help. You did get out and play with Asriel and decided to check those areas first, but no luck.

After a while of checking all the normal spots you knew about, you decided to back track. You knew of another route back home, but Asgore and Toriel told you both to avoid it. You run to the rickety old bridge and look around. As you begin to cross you swore you saw something white below. Your face goes pale, " _Oh god, please say that isn't Asriel."_ You move to where you have a better view of below and swear under your breath, "Shit." You bolt back to the rock face as you remove your shoes.

Using the claws on you hand and toes you extend them. You embed them into the rock and slide down the rock face, allowing you to slide down at a controlled pace. Once you are at the bottom you make your way over to Asriel, contents scattered all over as he laid unmoving. You check for a pulse, it was different, but it was there and you give a sigh of relief. You notice his head had landed on a rock which explained a lot.

You saw blood of a different nature it is gray instead of red. Your hands are shaking and mind is racing as you decide on the next course of action. You didn't want to move him in case he had a concussion. You could try that spell, but never had much success with it in the past. You take a deep breath and focus, " _Just this once, please work."_ You place you hands on his head gently.

Word race through your mind as a green aura forms around your hands. It takes all your concentrating to maintain the spell, your breathing is labor and sweat is drenching your clothes. It feel like an eternity, but it only been a few minutes as you hear a groan. You slowly open your eyes and the spell diminishes. You see Asriel stir and his eyes open as he looks around confused.

"H-Hey B-Broderick, what happened?" He try to sit up, but winces and just stays where he is. "You seemed to have taken a nasty fall. I think I manged to heal the worst of your injuries, but..." You look down and see his leg is pretty banged up, "I don't think you be able to walk much on that leg of yours."

You continue to check him over, "The good news is, it seems nothing is broken so I should be able to carry you out of here."

He chuckles lightly, "For someone who didn't have an education before you sure seem like you know a lot about injuries."

"Yeah, let's just say I got hurt a lot when I was growing up." You tear your sleeve from your shirt and cut it into strips with your claws and bandage his head with it. "Even though you head should be fine that was the first time I cast that spell successfully." He was going to ask what you meant by that, but you pick him up gently and made your way towards the rock face you came down. It was funny how light he was, even more so then anything else you came across in your life.

As you summon the magic needed to activate your ability to increase your speed you suddenly felt dizzy and collapse to a knee. You saw the look on Asriel face and smile not to worry him, but something was wrong. Asriel noticed your face was pale and you were sweating a lot. You hoist yourself back up and resume walking as you try again, but again you stumble and this time drop on both knees. "Broderick are you okay? You really don't look so good, your face is pale and you're sweating a lot."

You didn't say anything as you gently set Asriel back on the ground and slump to your side. You look at him beside you as you tell him, "I'm sorry Asriel, it seems I won't be able to get us home after all." with that you pass out from exhaustion. Asriel rolls on his side reaching out with his hand as he gently shakes you, "Broderick, what's wrong? P-Please say something." Tears form in his eyes as he begins to shout out for help, but his voice begins to crack and give out with more time.

He just lays there crying and then he hears someone shout from above, "Hey, you two okay down there? Give me a second and I'll be down to help you." Asriel looks up and notices Undyne as she makes a ladder down to the bottom with her spears. When she gets to the bottom, Asriel succumbs to his injuries and slumps over you and passes out himself. Undyne easily picks both of you up in one arms, walks back over to the rock face and climbs back up to the top.

She darts off looking down at both of you as she makes her way back to the castle, "Don't worry you two, I'll make sure you get home, but just do one thing for me and don't die on the way."

You slowly begin to stir and realize you're back in your room on your bed. You look across the way and notice Asriel had been patched up more properly and his leg has been tended to. You sit up and slowly make your way over to Asriel. As you do you still feel dizzy and stumble a bit, but manage to regain your balance.

Reaching out you caress Asriel's head fur and run a hand gently down his ear. " _Well it seem we survived that mess. Toriel must have been freaking out when she saw the state we were in. Guess Undyne or someone manage to find us after my failed attempt at a rescue."_ You make your way over to the door and quietly leave the room. You head down the hallway and make your way to the kitchen. You could smell something pleasant in the air as you do. As you enter you catch Toriel pulling a pie out of the oven and set it on the counter.

You walk over and gently pull on her robe, "Morning Toriel, what kind of pie is that?" Startled at first she looks down and notice you standing there. She reaches down and wraps you in a hug, "My child you had me worried. When Undyne brought you both in I feared the worst, but I'm glad you're both okay. As for what kind of pie I made it is a butterscotch and cinnamon pie." Your month was watering at the sound of that.

Your moment of salivating over the thought of the pie was interrupted when Toriel spoke again, "My child could you tell me what happened after you left the house?" You explain the events that took place up until the point that you passed out. "I see, I wasn't aware that you could cast magic, but maybe I can help you practice so you don't put such a strain on yourself the next time you have to use it."

You gave he a quizzical look, "Do you know how to cast magic as well?" It never came up in any conversation since you been down here. She nods, "Yes my child, in fact all monster can use magic to some degree." She holds out her hand and produces a small flame. You were surprised at first, but got to thinking, " _If Toriel and other monster can use magic like I can then I'll have someone to teach me instead of figuring it out on my own."_

You knew a couple of spells, the recently(barely) working healing spell, and a lightning spell. You also have two abilities that ran off magic, but one was passive for the most part. Your body is able to naturally regenerate at an alarming rate and your speed ability. Of course your other spells required incantations to cast, unlike your abilities. Toriel waited patiently for your answer on if you wanted help with your magic or not.

"I think it would be nice to have someone to learn from then to figure it out by myself."

"I glad to hear you say that, it will be nice for Asriel to have someone to practice with. I'm sure he will be happy with this news" You think about what she said, " _Hmm, I'm going to have to ask what kind of magic he can use later."_ Toriel then asked, "My child would you like some pie? It should be cool enough to have some now."

"I would, but if it's okay with you I rather wait until Asriel is awake to have some too." She gets up and pats you on the head, "That's fine my child, if you could, can you check up on him?" You begin to make your way back to your room, but stop as you head back and give Toriel a hug. Your cheeks blush a bit, "I really do appreciate everything you've done for me since I fell down here. I love you m-mom." You quickly run off towards the bedroom and close the door behind you. She blinks at what you said, " _Did he just call me mom?"_ A smile forming on her face.

You press your back to the door, cheeks still flushed. It felt weird to call Toriel your mom.

You look up and notice Asriel sitting up in his bed looking at you, "You okay Broderick? Your face is kind of flush, do you have a fever?" You shake your head, "N-no, I-I kind of called, 'Toriel' M-mom." You take your two index fingers pressing them together, looking down at the floor as the red in your cheeks deepen a little more.

Asriel giggles at your shyness and embarrassment from this, "Well she did tell you it was alright to do so, but you just kept calling her Toriel. So does that mean were officially brothers?" You look dumbstruck, how did things suddenly escalate to this point. You are still trying to recoil from calling Toriel mom and now Asriel was asking you if you're brothers. You just didn't know what to say and stutter out a reply.

"I-I guess so A-Asriel, t-this is still s-so new to me. I-I've just never had a f-family like M-mom, D-dad, and y-you before. So I'm still taken aback from it all." Asriel gets to his feet and walks over to you, "You just said, Asgore 'Dad'. You don't have to keep calling me Asriel now that we're brothers. If you like you can call me, "Azzy" for short and I'll call you, "Bro" for short. It works out since that's the first three letters of your name."

Your face is probably like a tomato by now, your mind trying to make sense of what transpired in such a short time. Asriel limps over and gives you a hug, "Thanks for coming to my aid, even if the rescue plan didn't work out as you intended. You still come and did your best, also I was awake before you and Undyne explained that you asked her to help looking for me. So you still got us both rescued because you planned ahead."

You smile as you now wrap your arms around your new brother and begin giggling, "I guess things did work out, but tell you the truth I'm surprised Undyne found us as quickly as she did. She must have been thinking along the same lines as I was checking alternate route home." Azzy pulls back still smiling, "Well I was yelling for help and there's a decent echo in that area. I'm sure that helped some. She wasn't 100% sure, but she said, "I thought I heard someone, but it was so faint. Once I got closer I definitely knew I heard a cry for help."

You both start laughing at this point, "Some rescue, huh. I ask Undyne to help locate you, I find you and head down to rescue only to end up passing out, which lead you to call out for help, which in turn got Undyne to rescue us. It came around full circle." Your both laughing at how funny it is. It something you both probably shouldn't be laughing about, but after what you both went though you need this.

"So how's you leg? Is it still hurting?" Asriel looks down at his leg then back at you, "It's still hurts some, but not as bad when you first found me. I can get around the house fine I think." You shake your head and put his arm around your shoulder. "Don't push yourself I'll help you. Mom's made pie and I want us both to be there to have a slice."

"You shouldn't push yourself either Bro, you don't look a hundred percent yourself."

The day pressed on as you help Asriel to the table and each of you enjoy a slice of pie. It got easier to call Toriel your mom and Asgore dad. The first time you called Asgore dad he was surprised like Toriel, but ends up smiling about it. Things seem to be going well for you as a couple of months rolled by. Your past made itself know every now and then as you slept. Reminding you of the horrors you faced in the lab during your time there.

That night you had a dream about a beast that had vines with little mouths each with razor sharp fangs dripping with acidic-saliva from them. The beast itself had no visible head just a giant maw attached to a body with rows of teeth. It had four legs on it's body with twelve inch looking claws. It ran at you to close the distance as its vines lash out. You dodge and weaved through them avoiding what you can.

You miscalculated and it smack you with its front leg sending you hurtling into the steel wall. You struggle back to your feet as the fresh gashes across your chest drip with blood to the ground below. It was on you before you could react fast enough, " _this is it_ " you thought to yourself. As you close your eyes waiting for the end, words came to you and at the end of the incantation you swing your arm down shouting, "LIGHTNING ARK!" Energy collected above the beast and then struck it. It let out a horrifying blood curdling roar before its charred husk toppled over. Your eyes still closed you begin to slowly open them and see the sizzling remains of its corpse.

The door open and you walk towards it. You bolt up right sweat pouring down your face, drenching your shirt, your breathing heavy, you look over and see Asriel on the bed looking at you.

He reaches out and pulls you into a warm loving hug, you begin to relax and your breathing slowly returns to normal. You put your head against his chest and listen to his heart, the calming rhythm you heard was relaxing. Your eyes shut as you let the peaceful warmth carry you away.

Asriel laid down with you and pulled the blanket over you both. "It's okay Bro, your okay. I'm right here for you, I'll always be here for you." caressing your head as you both fall back to sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

In the morning you awaken to find yourself staring at Asriel, he's still sleeping peacefully, mouth slightly agape with a bit of drool pooling onto the pillow. You can't help yourself as you give a quiet chuckle so not to disturb him. You do your best to gently make your way out from under Asriel's arm that is wrapped around you and crawl your way out of bed. You look back to see him stir lightly before settling back to sleep and give a sigh of relief that you didn't wake him.

Walking to the bedroom door you quietly open the door and work your way out into the hallway gently shutting the door behind you. Walking down the hallway you make your way to the kitchen expecting to see Toriel there cooking breakfast, but upon entering you notice she wasn't around. You look around the kitchen and notice a note on the fridge that read, "To Asriel and Broderick." Taking the note off the fridge you unfold it and read the contents inside.

"To my children, while you both are asleep I decided to get an early start and head into town for supplies. I have left you both breakfast in the fridge and I should be home before noon. Love Mom." You take the note and set it on the counter as you look in the fridge to find some pancake's. You take the plate that has your name on it and take a seat at the table. You finish breakfast and make your way back to the bedroom to get a change of clothes.

As your coming down the hallway you notice the door to the bedroom open and Asriel step out. As you begin to greet him you felt a eerie chill run down your spine. You suddenly hear a voice in you head, it was deep and cold sounding, " _Kill him, Kill everyone down here. You'll only be disappointed, they're just using you and once they're done with you they'll get rid of you like everyone else has. Your parents, those in the lab, in the end your just an object to be used."_ You grab your head and huddle to the floor, " _No, that's not true. They're different and shown me nothing, but love. They're my family and they won't abandon me like everyone else."_

The voice gives an eerie laugh and then scoffs at you, " _No one could every love you. I mean look at you; you're not even human anymore. Your a freak and you'll always be alone. I'll help free your from anymore pain before you suffer again."_ You felt your mind drifting and control over your body fading. You watch as your body stands back up straight and your claws extend. You're screaming as you watch whatever has taken control of you walk towards Asriel. Asriel turns to you, noticing that you're acting odd and that you had your claws out.

"Bro, are your okay? You don't look good and your expression is scary." Asriel tries to take a step back, but is knocked to the floor as you leap on top of him. Your arm pulled back, ready to strike Asriel, but Asriel just reaches up and wraps his arms around you. The arm lunges forward and you scream out, " _GIVE ME BACK MY BODY!"_ Your arm halts as tears begin rolling down your cheeks. "Shh, It's going to be okay Bro. I'm here for you." Your arm falls limp and your lips tremble and in a shaky voice, "A-Azzy, I-I'm s-sorry."

You leap off him, your mind still trying to make sense of what happened and you run for the front door. Asriel calls out to you, "Bro, come back. It's okay... I forgive." He scrambles to his feet as quickly as he can to give chase, but when he get to the front door there's no sign of you, "Bro..." You ran to the barrier room tripping over your feet a few time on the way. As you stand before the gray form that makes up the barrier you clutch your hands into a fist.

You remember being told that nothing could pass through the barrier and read that anything that tried would be destroyed by it. You thought to yourself, " _I'm counting on you to kill me. I can't continue to live with those down here. I'm a threat to them all. I almost killed my brother for god sake."_ Tears were streaming down your eyes as you proceed forward. You did hope you could find peace down here, but it seems the really monster was you.

That voice was right, you weren't human anymore, you felt more like a raging beast like the ones back in the lab, when whatever it was attack Asriel. You nearly added another life to your already blood stained hands. You stop shy, right in front of the barrier, and turn and walk to your left punching the wall in anger. The impact from your fist makes the wall crack and web out and in the center your fist left an impression of itself. " _I am the worst thing that could have ended up down here."_

As you turn you make your way back in front of the barrier and take a step forward again. The voice from before returns, " _You so pitiful, you have so much strength and you're going to throw it all away for what? A family? You don't even know what it's like to have a real family. In this world people use each other to get what they want. They're all selfish looking out for themselves."_

" _Maybe at one time I would have believed that, but Toriel, Asgore, and Asriel showed me otherwise. I won't let any harm come to them and I'm taking out the one potential danger to them, me."_ The barrier now surrounds you as you enter it. It was odd though, you expected a painful death, but you didn't feel any discomfort. You had your eyes closed the entire time as you walked through the barrier and after a few moments something bright was shining in your face.

You slowly open your eyes and notice the sky and a view of the entire forest below you. The sun was shining, bird singing, and there you were still alive. You hear a chuckle, " _Well tough break_ , _so what's next? You have a nice mountain to jump from, how about it? They always say third times a charm, but with your luck you'd probably survive that as well. You really do suck at dying you know that."_ Your claws extend and you reach up to your chest ready to tear your own heart out.

As your claws touch your skin you suddenly have visions of images flashing in your head. The scene was that of the lab and someone placing some sort of device in your neck, but you don't recall that happening. You reach back and plunge your thumb, index, and middle finger into the back of your neck. As you move them around you bump into something that felt metallic and hear that voice again, but this time it sounds more nerves, " _H-Hey s-stop that, I don't know what your thinking, but..."_

It was interrupted as you pull the object free and look down at a round device with blinking lights. You hear it speak in a low squeaky voice, "H-hey, p-put me back. You need me, you wouldn't have survived this long with out me. I kept you alive in that hellish laboratory." It sounded desperate and you didn't believe it at all. You take it and roll it around in-between your fingers, before putting it back in your hand and close your fingers around it.

You hear its muffled shouts, but ignore them as you crush the device in your hand. Slowly you turn your hand and relax you fingers as pieces of the device fall to the ground. You just think to yourself, " _So this device was the thing that took control of my body and nearly killed Azzy, but what was it there for and why did it make itself present now?"_ You sit down for a moment to maul over everything and to clear your head.

Then you realized, " _Wait, I just walk through the barrier, but that shouldn't be possible. If those scientist can create more like me, but with someone that has more desire to kill, then every monster in Mt. Ebott is in danger."_

You didn't care much for humans, but you knew that not all humans are bad. It just seems like you always got the worst of what humanity had to offer. Questions just kept popping up in your head, " _Why did they create me? Was I to be a tool for war? Did they know the full extent of what they created? Did they know about the monster that lived below Mt. Ebott? They did say take me to that location, so they must have had a reason they chose to bring me here of all places."_

You could ask question all day, but they resulted only making you more frustrated. The sun has started to set and you realized it was getting a little colder. You decide to put the questions aside for now and get back to your family. Toriel, Asgore, and Asriel must be worried sick about you by now. Especially Asriel, considering what you've done before running off on him. You stand up and brush yourself off before you turn to walk back through the barrier.

Once you're back on the other side you look over at the wall, " _I really hope no one is going to be mad about that. Then again, who else, but me knows I'm down here at the moment anyway."_ You walk over to the stairs and head up. Once you're at the top something runs into you knocking you to the ground. You look up to see what hit you and there in front of you is Asriel. He shaking his head, then looks up and blinks as his eyes go wide.You wave at him with a sheepish look, "Oh, Hey Azzy-"

That was all you manage to get out before he tackles you into a hug, as tears well up in his eyes, "Bro, where have you been this whole time? We've been looking for you for hours. I g-got s-so scared t-that s-something b-bad happened t-to you. You j-just suddenly r-ran o-off before..." You pull him into a hug yourself, caressing the top of his head trying to help calm him, "Sorry Azzy, I had some weird thoughts running through my head and needed sometime to myself to make sense of them, but I think I'll be okay from now on."

He still sniffling as he pulls back to look at you, "What happened anyway? You weren't acting like yourself, but at the last moment it seem like you came back to your senses."

"It seems a page from my past came back to haunt me once more, but lets just say I put it to rest."

He just looks confused at you, "You haven't told us much about your past while you've been down here. You told us it was difficult to talk about, but you shouldn't keep things bottle up inside of you." You nod, "You're right Azzy, but it's still hard to talk about it right now. I swear when I'm ready though I'll tell you, along with mom and dad. Just be patient with me til then, okay." Images of your past flood your mind as tears rolled down you face. Asriel saw how much you were hurting and pulls you back into a hug.

"A-Azzy, I j-just... Y-you a-all made m-me f-feel w-welcomed and loved. I-I never h-had anyone l-like that o-on the surface... I w-was..." You couldn't talk anymore as a lump caught in your throat as your emotions get the better of you. Years of suppressed pain spilling forth. Asriel pulls you back into a hug, "Go ahead and let it out. I'll wait until you feel better and when your ready to tell us anything we'll be there for you, okay." You just give a weak nod into his chest as your continued to drench his shirt with your tears.

After letting all that go you feel better, but now you felt a bit drained. You gently pull back and nod at him as you work to stand up. He joins you and then looks at the stairs, "Bro, I've been wondering did I see you coming up from those stairs there? Did you just come from where the barrier is?" You didn't want to lie to him and slowly nod, "Yeah, I did. After what happened I felt really bad and decided to do something foolish and walked into it."

Asriel looks at you with a look of horror on his face, "W-w-what, but your okay. Mom and dad always told me when I was growing up that the barrier was dangerous to be near. How are you not hurt or worse?" You shrug at him, "I don't understand it myself Azzy. I read up on the barrier and your right I shouldn't have been able to do what I did. I just walked through it, then I was overlooking the scenery, and saw the sky and sun shining down on me. After spending sometime thinking I made my way back and that was about the time I bumped into you."

Asriel face was trying to display so many emotions at once, "I-I... That's so cool, but at the same time brings up, how?" There's only one way that I can think of that would allow you to do this. When mom told you about a monster/human Soul fused together. Bro... you haven't killed any monster since you've been down here have you?" You shake your head furiously, "No, I haven't hurt anyone since I've been down here. With the exception of what I almost did to you, but I didn't have full control over myself at the time."

"You know I've been curious about something ever since I saw you about your appearance and how you look different from humans in the books I've read. You told me your the only one that looks that way and now you telling me you were able to walk through the barrier. Bro I'm wondering if I could look at your Soul?" You were taken aback by his request, " _How am I suppose to do that? I saw Azzy show me his Soul that one time, but I never really followed up on how it was possible."_

Asriel could see the look of confusion on you face and gently grabs your hands with his. He cups them together as he brings your hands over you chest. You suddenly see a dim glow and feel something warm emerge. As you bring your hands out away from your chest you see a small purple Soul resting in your hands. Asriel is looking intensely at your Soul and notices that at the center of the purple Soul is a grayish looking heart in the center. He knew what he was looking at was a monster Soul, but the shade of gray was darker then normal for monsters.

"Bro, you have a human and monster Soul, which would explain how you passed through the barrier, but I'm still confused how you have both. I'm pretty sure it has something to do with how you look, am I right?" You were looking at your Soul as it hovers there in your hands. You always felt you lost it years ago. You give a slight nod, "I'm going to be honest with you Azzy, I didn't always look like this. I looked like any normal human, but at the age of ten I was taken to a laboratory where this happened to me. I spent nearly a whole year there before I ended up down here."

Asriel looks confused, "So humans can change how they look, how does that work? I guess I shouldn't be surprised since monster have been down here for a long time. You said you were taken, what do you mean by that?" Your eyes are downcast looking at the ground, "I didn't know something like this was possible either and I have no idea how it works. I... it was all done against my will. I didn't really have a choice in the matter as I was pulled along the lab. I was then surrounded by a glass cylinder and was injected with something. The pain was excruciating and I blacked out and when I awoke I'm as you see me now."

Tears were welling up again and Asriel saw how hard it was for you to talk even this much about it. He walks over and embraces you in a hug again, "I'm sorry Bro, I didn't mean to bring up such bad memories. I had no you idea gone through so much. I can't even imagine what that must have been like and being alone through it all." You shake your head slightly, "There's not much that can be about it now. Humans can be so cruel and it was hard to live from day to day..."

More tear roll down your face, "I-I'm sure there's nice h-humans, but I-I never m-met them..." Your voice gave out again as Asriel gently ran a hand over the back of your head. "Shh, you don't have to force yourself to say anymore if you don't want to. I got an idea now what you've been through. So lets just leave the rest for another time, okay?" You nod and pull back wiping the tears from your eyes, "T-thank you Azzy for listening to me and I'm sorry I d-dumped all this on you s-suddenly. I should have been more open and told you, mom, and dad sooner. Though it does feel good to have a bit of it off my chest."

"I think we should get back before we worry mom and dad more. Unless you need a bit longer, I don't want to rush you." You nod, but look down as you realize your Soul is still cupped in your hands, "Um, but before we head back can I ask you something. How do I put my Soul back?" Asriel chuckles and shows you how to put your Soul back inside you. It was amazing to see the difference between your Soul and Asriel's, but that raised another question, " _Do those scientist back in the lab realize they created a human with a monster Soul or was that a complete fluke?"_

You had to put the question on hold again as Asriel has already started walking towards home, "You coming Bro?" You jog a bit to catch up, "Yeah, sorry I'm still trying to take everything that happened today in. Hey Azzy, could you keep this barrier matter and the little bit we talked about between us? I just don't think I could handle explaining any of this again right now. I'll tell mom and dad later when I'm feeling more up to it."

"Well we really shouldn't keep this from mom and dad, but I'll let you do so when you're ready. So I promise to not breath a word to them."

"Thanks Azzy, I appreciate it."

The rest of the walk home was pretty quiet and once you enter the house you see both Toriel and Asgore sitting at the table with worried looks on their faces. They both turn towards you and Asriel as you both walk in and rush towards you as they embrace both you in a hug. Toriel speaks up first, "My child, where have you been? We looked everywhere we thought you might have gotten off to, but we found no trace of you."

You give a light chuckle, "Well you could say, "I was right under your noses the whole time, but at the same time I was above you." You look at Asriel as you both give a chuckle as Toriel and Asgore give each other with a look of confusion. Asgore asked, "What do you mean my son? Is this some kind of riddle?"

"I've been in the castle this entire time. I was down in the barrier room, I know I shouldn't have been down there because its dangerous, but I really needed sometime alone. I just couldn't think of anywhere else that would allow me some privacy. I promise I'll stay away there in the future and I'm sorry I worried you both."

As you look up at them, you see they both have more of a look of concern then anger, "I'm just glad your safe my child. Everyone needs time to themselves and as long as you understand then everything is fine."

You adjust yourself to give Toriel and Asgore a hug, "Thanks mom, dad, I'll try and be more open about anything that is bothering me in the future. I just needed time to sort my thoughts out before I could do so." At that moment Asriel's and your stomach growls and everyone starts laughing. "I guess you two are hungry considering it is past dinner time." After a nice warm meal the night winds down and you get a good night of sleep. Sure you had a few images of your past as you slept, but they seem more distant after today.

After breakfast you and Asriel start your first day of magic lessons together, but you were having a hard time understanding the instructions Toriel was giving you both. She was talking about envisioning the magic and give it form, but nothing about words for the incantations. She saw the confusion on your face and ask what is wrong, "My child, is what I'm saying difficult to understand? I figured it would be easier to understand since you said you knew some magic."

"Well I do know magic, but the magic I know has words that form in my mind. Then the magic just happens, there's no envisioning or form to give." She thinks about what you said, "The magic you described sounds like magic humans of old cast. The same type of magic that was used to place the barrier, but how does someone your age know of such old magic?" Thinking it would be faster to show then tell, you focus for a bit as an octahedron-shaped stone appears in front of you.

On two of the surfaces it has two glowing runes, one is a green color, and the other is a light bluish-white color. Asriel at seeing this stops his magic training and comes over to get a closer look at the object floating in the palm of your hand. Asriel asks, "What is it?"

"From what I was told it was called a magic rune stone, but for how it exactly works is beyond me. It was completely blank when I first received it, but over time these two runes appeared. Each rune is a spell I know. When I focus on it, I see the words form in my mind and then it just happens. This one here..." You point to the green rune, "Is the healing spell I ended up using to heal Azzy and this one..." You point to the bluish-white rune, "Is a lightning spell."

Asriel holds out his hands, "Is it okay if I hold it?" You smile and giggle at him, "Sure, just be careful with it alright." You let it transfer over into his hands as it slowly rotates in place. Taking it in one hand, he takes his other hand and with a finger touches the surface of it. You begin to chuckle and Asriel looks at you confused what's so funny. You see the confused look on his face, "Sorry, your fur is really ticklish." He looks back down and touches it again.

You giggle and chuckle again as he asks, "So you can feel me touching the surface of the rune stone?"

"Yeah, they said it's linked to me. Also something about it being the core, but I'm not really sure what all that means. The first time I experimented with it and touch the surface it felt like I was literally being touched." As Asriel goes back to examine the rune stone he continues touching it which causes you to giggle from time to time as you turned your attention back to Toriel. "So judging on what you said about old magic I assume this works differently then the magic you know."

She nods, "Yes, It's still magic, but is definitely that of which I haven't felt in a long time."

"Well I guess I'm back to being self taught from now on, but I'm still more then happy to keep practicing alongside Azzy."

"I'm sorry I can't be of more help in how to control your magic, but you are more then welcome to keep practicing with Asriel." You nod and then giggle again, " _Okay that's enough of Azzy playing with my rune stone."_ You walk over and asked for it back and as he about to hand it back to you one of the faces on it flare up brightly. Once it dies back down you notice a third rune glowing red on the surface. Asriel looks at it, "I-I didn't do it, it's not my fault, at least I don't think it was my fault."

He hands it back to you and you let it float back inside of you. You focus on the new rune as the incantation scrolls across your mind. You have a grin on your face as you realize what the magic is. You hold out your hand and a fireball appears above the palm of you hand, "Interesting, I'm not sure if in someway it was able to draw out magical properties of Azzy magic by having Azzy interact with it, but it appears I have a new fire spell."

Toriel and Asriel look at the fireball hovering in your hand, "It seems we were able to help you learn some new magic after all my child. I find how you're able to cast magic very interesting and would like to continue to help you learn more about it. I'll look into the books we have here in the underground and see what I can find after we're done practicing magic." Asriel eyes sparkled in excitement, "This is great, now we both can work on practicing fire magic together."

You let the magic dissipate, "As much as that sounds fun Azzy, I think I should focus on practicing the spell that I have the most difficulty with. It seems magic based more on elemental magic is easier for me compared to my healing spell." Asriel expression is doleful, you walk over to him and place a hand on his shoulder. He looks up at you, "Don't feel sad Azzy, I'm still going to be practicing right along side you, but I'm just going to be working on different magic. That doesn't mean we can't support one another."

Asriel smiles at you, "You're right Bro, its not like we both won't be working hard. I just thought I finally had someone to practice fire magic with." You just chuckle, "Azzy you have the best person you can do so with in this room. Mo...Toriel is the best teacher you could have and beside our two types of magic are completely different from each other." Toriel giggles a bit, "He has a point my child, unless you think I'm not good enough to have as a teacher anymore."

Asriel blushes a bit in embarrassment, "N-no, I didn't mean anything like that. I just meant having someone to practice with that's around the same age as me." Toriel give another giggle, "I was only kidding my child. I know what you meant and even though your both practicing different magic you still be together while you do so."

"Toriel is right Azzy, I mean I can use all the support I can get while I try to get my healing magic down. The first time I cast it successfully was on you I couldn't believe how much of a strain it was on me, but the motivation to help you allowed me to cast it. So in a way you did help me, but I don't want to be in a situation like that again."

Even though it was a terrible situation, Asriel was happy that it allowed you to do something you couldn't do before, but wished it was under better circumstances. You both got back to practicing magic after your little break and you're having the most difficulty. Asriel seems like he is enjoying himself and you felt as though you are on the verge of passing out. There was just so much sweat soaked into your shirt. After about ten minutes of practicing your healing magic you throw your hands in the air in frustration and lay back on the stone floor.

You just lay there completely exhausted after casting it a few times, a couple of them just fizzling out on you. You really didn't understand why it was so difficult to cast over your other spells. It seemed like a bad joke and that you shouldn't even know it in the first place. Toriel turns and sees you sprawled out on the floor, breathing heavy, and looking as though you are fighting to stay awake. She claps her hands to get Asriel attention as he stops to look in her direction.

"Asriel I think it's a good time to call it a day, it looks like Broderick is at his limit for the day." You just raise a shaky arm and wave at her, "Don't mind me me... I'm fine. Let Azzy continue practicing if he wants to. Don't let little old me ruin it for the rest of the class." You chuckle as your arm slumps back to the floor. Toriel ignores you and walks over to pick you up in her arms. It always felt nice being held by your mom and you watch as she walks to the doorway.

Asriel follows behind both of you and you peek out around her to put yourself in view of Asriel, "Help Azzy I'm being kidnapped by our teacher. Tell mom I may not get home til later." Everyone chuckles and shortly on the way home you fell asleep. Asriel catches up so he walking along side Toriel, "It really seems healing magic is extremely tiring for Bro. He was only at it for about ten minutes or so before he had to stop."

"My child, any magic can be difficult if you haven't much experience with it. I remember a certain someone having trouble casting fire magic their first time." Asriel blushed, "Y-yeah, but I don't remember ever being worn out like Bro is." Toriel thought to herself, " _It's true he does seem to have a lot of difficulty with healing magic over his other spells. His other spells seem to come so naturally to him. I hope I can find a book in the underground which may explain how to make the process of casting human magic easier for him."_

Upon getting home Toriel puts you to bed and heads to the kitchen to start making dinner. Asriel in the mean time decided to relax by drawing pictures with crayons. After a half an hour passes Toriel asks Asriel from the kitchen to go wake you up for dinner. Asriel heads to the bedroom and stands at your bedside. He gently shakes your shoulder a bit, "Bro, dinner is ready." You mumble something that Asriel couldn't make out as you curl into a ball like a cat would.

Asriel giggles at how cute this makes you look and decides to let you continue sleeping. He sits at the table as Toriel brings out dinner. "I don't think Bro is going to be joining us for dinner mom. He did something cute and curled up into a ball like a cat. I just couldn't bring myself to disturb him seeing him like that." Toriel giggles at what Asriel told her, "That's alright, he was pretty exhausted from magic lessons today. I'll just set some aside for him to have later."

You never did get up and slept through the night. When you wake, you stretch, and yawn as you brush the sleep away from your eyes. You hear your stomach growl at you and realized how hungry you are having slept through dinner last night. Walking to the kitchen it's earlier then you thought it was as Toriel wasn't even up yet. So you rummage through the fridge and grab the left over dinner.

You decided to go ahead and make a light breakfast to have alongside it. After your meal, you pat your stomach and look to your left to notice Toriel coming down the hallway. Toriel walks towards you and once close enough she give you a hug, "Good morning my child, I hope you slept well." You nod, "I did mom. I went ahead and had breakfast along with last nights dinner. So you don't have to make any for me this morning."

Toriel nods, "Then I'll just make breakfast for the rest of us, but I do have something for you. I found it last night and I think it might help you with your magic casting." She walks over to the bookshelf in the living room and pulls a small book from it. She walks over and hands you the book. You look over the cover and there's text on it that you can't make out, "What is this mom? It looks really old and the text written on it is strange."

"I forgot I even had it. That book was from one of the humans that sealed us down here. It was a gift and she said it may come in handy someday if monster and humans ever were to come together again. Asgore asked what was written in the book and they just said, "It is a book with my works and theories on magic. Who knows what might change for us over the years and I know you'll take care of it." You look back down at it, "So it was from a human who knew about magic like me. Is it alright if I take time to study it?"

"I rather you continue your normal studies, but I think a change of pace might be nice. I hope it helps, but it might be hard to figure out what is written inside of it. No one has been able to translate it and we have had hundreds of years to be able to do so."

"I'm not sure how much luck I'll have at it if you and other monster down here haven't had much luck with it, but I'll see what I can do." You stand up and excuses yourself. You went to every location in the underground that had books in hopes you could translate what was written in it. In the end you found yourself back home and laying on your bed as you glare at the book in frustration. You think you manage to figure out a few characters, but nothing groundbreaking that was going to help.

You rest the book on the bed and pinch the bridge of you nose, " _This is turning out to be as hard as Toriel had made it sound. I feel like my brain is melting and I'm no closer to figuring out what any of it means. I think I'm going to need more resources then what's available down here. As much as I promised mom and dad I wouldn't go near the barrier again, I think it's time for a field trip to the surface and look through some libraries. There's a city not to far from here, I could see it in the distance from Mt. Ebott."_

Now the other problem was how not worry everyone while doing so. Leaving a note with a brief explanation you thought would be the best option to go with. Looking over at the clock you noticed it was around four in the evening and decide it best to wait til tomorrow before you made the trip. You then thought you could also see about checking out some new martial at the library for Toriel. She is always looking for new ways to improve upon the subject she was teaching you and Asriel.

Another hour passed by and it seems to be taking Toriel and Asriel more time with lessons then normal. Deciding on getting out of the house and putting in a little magic practice yourself might be a good way to wind down the day. You chose to stick to the magic you had an easier time handling and summon a ball of lightning. You focus on it, changing its form to that of a dragon and concentrate on controlling. Once you're satisfied, you dismiss it and switch to your newly acquired fire spell.

You create a small pillar of fire and hollow out the center. You thought this a good way to trap someone inside to stop their movement and to follow-up you bring a bolt of lightning down the center of it. Lightning magic wasn't great against moving targets and anytime you used it you had to aim where they might end up, but with this it solved that problem. You thought up a name for the attack and decided on Plasma Ark.

The attack rang out and echoed for a good while. Which seem to caught the attention of Toriel, as she and Asriel came bounding towards the house. "My child, are you okay. I heard a loud noise that seemed to have come from nearby." You just had a grin on your face as you scratch the back of your head, "Sorry mom, I didn't mean to scare you. I figured since you weren't home yet I'd practice some magic. I didn't think about how loud the end result of it would be."

Toriel let out a sigh of relief, "I think you should hold off from practicing such magic, the echo down her carries quite a bit. I think most of those in the underground may have heard it and may cause them to worry."

"Hehe, yeah, I guess I'm going to have to practice that new combination of magic in a more secluded location."

"What new combination of magic were you working on Bro?"

"I combined both of my fire and lightning magic. I used fire magic to cover the lightning magic limitation of not being able to hit a moving target very well." Asriel eyes lit up, "Really? Oh, can you show us? I really want to see it in action." You look over at Toriel, "I'm not sure that's a good idea Azzy. Mom just told me not to and I promised to do so in a more secluded location." Asriel looked up at Toriel with pleading eyes and sighs.

"Alright, but this is the last time and if possible could you do it so that its a little less noisy. Also move it away from the house so you don't accidentally cause any damage to it." You nod in agreement as you move some distance away from the house, Toriel, and Asriel as you prepare to show them. You summon the pillar of fire like you had before, but this time you held back on the lightning strike power. Asriel runs over to you, "That was SO COOL! Could you teach me how to do that?"

A shiver runs down your back as you look over your shoulder to notice Toriel giving you a glare, "Ha ha ha, I don't think that's a good idea Azzy." You move in closer to whisper in his ear, "Mom doesn't look thrilled at that idea and is giving that, 'you better not' look." Asriel looks over at Toriel and notices what you mean. He ends up scratching the back of his head, "Ha ha ha, on second thought, it looks difficult to pull off and I can't even use lightning magic anyway. So um... how about we just go inside for dinner instead."

You all head in and have a nice meal before the rest of the day comes to a close, you lay in bed thinking about your plans for tomorrow as you slowly drift off to sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

In the morning you yawn and stretch out as you rub sleep from your eyes. You sit up and look over at the desk where you'd laid the book Toriel gave you. You get changed and grab the book putting it inside your pocket. Heading out to the living room you see Asriel and Toriel talking as they have breakfast. They both smile at you and say good morning. "Morning mom, Azzy. Mom I need to ask you something."

"What is it my child?"

"I know I promised you that I would work on my studies today in exchange to look over the book you gave me yesterday, but I'm wondering if I could have one more day to study it. This is the last day, I swear I'll study tomorrow, but I think I may know where I can get some information for translating what's inside it." Asriel gives you a look that he knows what you have planned, but you give him a look to not say anything.

"As much as I don't want you to get behind on your studies, this does pertain to understanding your magic. So I'll allow you to work on it today as well, but starting tomorrow I want you to work on your other subjects." You nod and give her a hug, "Thanks mom, I promise I will." Toriel gets up to make you some breakfast and after doing so, Toriel and Asriel head out to work on his magic lessons. Now with everyone occupied you finish breakfast and leave the note just in case you came home late.

You didn't want to leave Asriel with the burden explaining everything to your parents. Also if they did come looking for you they wouldn't find you in the underground, seeing as you would be on the surface. Walking back to your room you grab a gray hoodie jacket that Toriel made you, tucking your tail under it and pulling down to conceal it. You pull the hood up over your ears to hide them and finally you put on some gloves to hide the features of your hands.

You look in the full body mirror in the room to make sure nothing looks out of place. You didn't need to freak out anyone while at the library you just hoped no one bothered you. You head down to the barrier room and stare at it, " _Well check off another promise I'm breaking. I'm really not good at keeping them, but I'll tell them the truth once I get back. I hope Asriel does a better job at keeping his promise then I have."_

Walking through the barrier you emerge on the other side to feel the brisk morning air, " _Well time for a leisurely run, but then again that would be contradicting myself. Should only take me a few moments to reach the city."_ Upon reaching the city you look around and now looking about you think this city looks familiar. You notice a few location you've been to when you were younger. We've been to this city a few time with your ex-parents. Its been a couple of years and you hope no one recognized you.

Asking some people passing by where you could find a library you get some directions and manage to find it. You never knew you had been so close to Mt. Ebott in the past. Though you really didn't have much of a chance to look around and the areas you visited blocked the view of the mountain. You make your way inside and get to work. Looking around you find some books on old languages and grabbed as many as you could taking them back to an empty table.

Pulling your book from your jacket pocket you're glad it was small enough to fit. You start cross referencing text and realized you didn't have anything to write down your findings. You pick up your book and head to the front desk asking a librarian if they had some spare paper and pencil you could use. The lady was polite and reaches under the desk retrieving the objects you requested. You head back to the table you were at and resume your task.

Time passed by quickly, you started around nine this morning and it is now one in the afternoon. You made some good progress and felt you had a baseline understanding on what is being explained in the book. You are glad for Toriel teaching you what she has, if you tried doing something like this a few years ago it would have been impossible. You put the pieces of paper of what you have manage to complete in the book and put back in your jacket pocket.

You return the books that you used back to their respective shelves and make walk around the library to look for some books Toriel could use. You grab five books and make your way to the front desk. "Excuse me, I would like to check these out, but I don't have a library card. I was wondering if I could sign up for one." The lady smile down at you, "Of course, you'll just need to fill out this sheet with the information required."

You manage to get by most of it, but the address would be a little difficult. You highly doubted Mt. Ebott was a valid address. You thought about it and remember your old address, but just barely. You hand it back and she looks it over before asking, "I see your live in Orusbridge that quiet a distance from here. Wouldn't it be inconvenient to check out books from this library and return them later." You think up an excuse, "Oh, I'm staying with an aunt and uncle, I felt having a library card for here would be nice while I'm visiting."

She didn't question it further and put a stamp on the form as she inputs the information into the computer next to her. She runs the card through a scanner and then scans the books through. She hands the card and books to you, "There you go sweaty, just make sure to have them back in two weeks okay." You nod and thank her as you carry the books out under your arm. You hold onto the books tight as you run back to Mt. Ebott, you walk calmly back through the barrier and head for home.

Walking through the front door, you look around, and notice Toriel at the table with your note in hand. Asriel was sitting at the table as well and you sigh, " _Well so much getting back before anyone notices."_ You head over and set down the books on the table and take a seat, "So I see you got my note, I'm sure you have some questions about it." She looks at you with a stern face, "I do, my child. The note was vague about what you meant about going out. You-"

You cut in, "I really wanted to have both you and dad here for this, but since this came up earlier then I planned." You look over at Asriel and the take a deep breath, but Asriel could see you trembling a bit, "Remember when I said I went down to the barrier room the other day." She nods, "Yes, you told us you went down there to get away and gather you thoughts." You gulped, "Um... To be honest I went down there to walk through the barrier and try to... kill myself."

She has gone completely livid once the words sank in and she isn't even able to say anything for a while. You decide to continue, "As you can see I'm fine and after I walked through the barrier I ended up outside. I was shocked by this and I had many question after doing so, but I sorted out the problem that lead me to do so in the first place." Toriel regains her composer somewhat, "I don't understand why you would do such a thing my child. Were you unhappy about something, what would make you want to... kill yourself?"

You look over at Asriel and he stands up seeing you're trembling even worst then before, tears welling up. He walks over putting his arms around you, "It's b-because I-I almost k-killed A-Azzy that day." Tears were now rolling down your cheeks and Toriel stands up and walks to the other side of you as she also embraces you in a hug. You do your best to continue to explain, "I-I heard this v-voice in m-my head a-and then b-before I knew i-it I was w-watching myself l-leap at A-Azzy and tackled him to the f-floor and..."

You are a mess at this point and couldn't continue, but Asriel chimes in at this point to help you, "When I saw him something didn't look right, his eyes were different and looked more cat-like and once I was on the ground I looked up his eyes as though he was struggling. So I instinctively reached out my arms, placing them around him, telling him it would be alright. As he lunged his are forward to strike he come back to his senses. Before much more could happen he ran out the door."

Toriel lifts her head up to look at Asriel, "What would cause this to happen and how were you able to walk through the barrier?"

"He only told me vaguely that it was something from his past that caused him to attack me and I didn't want to force him to explain. As for the barrier, I asked if I could look at his Soul and we found that he has both a monster and human Soul." She looks down at you, "Is this true my child?" You only gave a weak nod in reply, "But why did you both keep this from us until now?" You slowly pull back from Toriel's embrace, your voice still cracked, "I-I'm the o-one t-that told h-him to k-keep it s-secret from y-you and d-dad."

Asriel spoke next, "I did say we shouldn't keep it secret, but he went through so much that day and wasn't sure that he could repeat everything he told me again." The conversation went on a little longer Asriel doing most of the talking while Toriel picked you up and sat you in her lap. You just laid your head against her chest and closed your eyes while you listen for any information you may need to fill in.

After hearing everything she decided that you told her enough for one day and let you go to your room with Asriel. She'd have to tell Asgore everything that she was today and discuss what to do next. She then looked over at the pile of books you sat on the table and looks through them. The information intrigued her and she moved over to her reading chair to look them over more. She opens a little further in the first book in the pile a slip of paper fell out.

She opens it and it read, " _Hey mom, if you're reading this then it means we had a talk about the barrier and I probably wasn't able to tell you about these books. I brought them back and thought you could use them to improve upon our current studies. I'm sorry about going to the surface and breaking my promise to not go near the barrier, but I found some information about the book you gave me. I just hope you understand and forgive me. I love you, Broderick."_

She folds the paper back up and set it aside on the table next to her and continues to look through the books until Asriel come back noticing them, "What did Bro bring back with him mom?" Toriel places the book in her lap, "It seems he has brought back some books with him to help me improve both of your study lessons. The information in them is more current then what we have down here. So I'll read through them and add it to both of your lesson plans.

Asriel gives a groan, " _Thanks Bro, It was already hard enough with moms current lessons and now you given us more work."_ Toriel gives a chuckle at Asriel current expression, "How is Broderick? I thought you would want to be with him after what he went through."

"I was, he said he felt tired and wanted to be alone. I'm sorry I kept this from you and dad, but I just felt it wasn't my right to tell you after he asked me not to."

"That's alright my child, you did what you thought was right, but just hope next time Broderick will be more forth coming in the future. Learning what little we have that he was isolated from the world, only to be treated as a science experiments is heartbreaking to say that least. Learn this just makes me wonder how much he still holding on to."

"I want to help Bro anyway I can, but I don't want to rush him into anything he's not ready to tell us."

"I think tomorrow you two should go out and enjoy yourselves, studies can be put on hold til he feels better." Asriel nods, "Thanks mom, I think that will help."

"It is late, you should get to bed. Your father should be home soon and I would like to discuss what has been said here today with him." Asriel was complaining and told Toriel he wasn't tired, but his yawning was saying otherwise. Defeated Asriel heads back to the bedroom.

A few moments later Asgore walk into the living room and Toriel sets aside the book she's reading to look up at him, "Gorey dear, we have some matters to discuss about Broderick that I learned about today." Asgore walks over to the couch and sits down, Toriel goes over the conversation she had with you and Asriel earlier. Asgore was indeed concerned about the matter, "Well that answer what he meant by being right under our noise when we were looking for him. I am sadden hear that he tried to end his life in such a manner. Though I can understand that the situation frighten him."

Toriel sighs, "I'm not sure what to do at this point. Knowing that he can go where we are not able to follow is very concerning. I think we need to talk to him about being able to go through the barrier and that he should be limited when he may do so. As much as I don't want him to think we don't trust him, I would feel better having the barrier room off-limits and with some guards posted."

"I feel the same way, I'll place guards on rotation until we can get a handle on the situation. Though do we have the right to keep him down here if he wants to leave? I mean from what I can tell he is a very capable child and able to care for himself. I went down to the barrier room and notice an imprint of a small fist that matches that of a child in the wall. If this belongs to Broderick then he has great physical strength."

Toriel look at him concerned, "I haven't seen this, how severe is it?" Instead of explaining it to her Asgore instead stands up and takes her hand as she stands. He leads her down to the barrier room, she walks over and runs her hand over the cracks in the wall. "As you can see Tori I don't think much is a threat to our new child. I think with the recent news he believed he was more of a threat to everyone down here."

She seems lost in thought, knowing that any normal human would be severally injured attempting a feat like this, but you showed no sighs of such. "Gorey I think we should learn more about our child. I think now would be a good time to have Gaster examine him, but only if he feels comfortable with it. I don't want to bring up any negative feelings that will remind him of his past. Asriel did mention something about him being in a Laboratory and I'm just afraid Gaster place will bring up such memories."

Asgore nods, "I agree, we'll only do so if Broderick is up to it."

"If he refuses then we'll drop this matter and not bring it up again. I think this poor child has been through enough for one lifetime."

"Now the next question is when we should bring this up to him? Should we ask him tomorrow or give him some time. The longer we wait the harder it's going to be. It would be less painful for them if we bring it up sooner and we can also bring up what we have decided on the barrier." Toriel gaze is downcast, "I feel bad if we go about telling him tomorrow. I told Asriel they both should take some time to relax and have fun."

Asgore walks over to Toriel and takes her hands in his, she looks up at him, "I think we should sleep on the matter and we'll decide on what we should do in the morning." They both give a final look at the wall before they head home. In the morning you and Asriel head out of the bedroom to get some breakfast, but notice both Toriel and Asgore at the table. They both have doleful looks on their faces, "My child we have something we like to discuss with you and if you say disagree to it then we let the matter drop."

You sit down at the table along with Asriel, "This has something to do with yesterday doesn't it?" They both nod and explain to you about seeing someone named Gaster and restrictions on the barrier. You ponder what they said and reply, "I'm fine with the restriction on the barrier, but those book I brought back need to be returned in a couple of weeks." They nod and agree to let you do so.

"As for this Gaster person, I'm not fond of the idea, but I'll do so as long as Asriel is present and with me the entire time." They again nod and agree to this, "So what will this Gaster person be doing? What kind of test will he be performing?" Asgore replies to you question, "We know very little about what these scientist have done to you. What we currently know about is your outward changes, your unique Soul, and your ability to cast magic just to name a few. If there is more behind it I think it would benefit you to know."

You slide your chair back with a grave expression on your face. Your voice sounding empty when you speak, "I need sometime to think this over." Without even waiting for a response you head to the front door and walk out. Asriel gets up to follow after you, but Toriel and Asgore stop him. Asriel gives them both a pleading look, "Please let me go after Bro. He looks like he was hurting so much and I don't want him to have to be alone like that." they both shake their heads.

"I think he need to be alone and sort this out himself." Asgore says to Asriel. Asriel in a huff stomps off angrily to his room and slams the door. "Well that went as well as expect." Toriel looks at him, "I hope they both will be okay after sometime to themselves." They both sighed as they knew the rest of the day was going to be gloomy. You head back to the location where Toriel and Asriel first found you.

You stare up to look at the hole you dropped down, a faint bit of light shining in, " _It seem I'm going to possibly be hooked up to machine again. I know they just want to help me find some answers to what those scientist did to me, but it still makes me feel uncomfortable. Though at least I'm getting a choice in the matter and if I choose not to then they'll let it go. That's far better then when I was ten."_

You're so frustrated and stressed about what to do you end up casting lightning repeatedly at the ground in an attempt to alleviate some of your stress. That went on so long that at the end of your onslaught of the ground you are sweating and breathing heavily. You relax your body and fall back to the ground. The bit of sunlight entering from above washing over you. The area in front of you is in shamble along with a newly crated hole.

You are going to have do something about the hole later. You didn't want anyway to come in here and get hurt by stumbling into it, but for now you let your eyes slowly close as you drift off to sleep. Asriel is stewing around in his room. He understood what Toriel and Asgore told him, but he still felt you shouldn't have to be alone. Hours went by and Asriel finally decided to leave the bedroom. As he heads out and down the hallway he hears the front door open.

He rushes towards the foyer to see who it is and sees you as you're just closing the door behind you. "Hey Bro, welcome back. Are you doing okay now?" Turning around mind still in a haze, your voice monotonous, "Oh hey Azzy, yeah I'm alright. Is mom and dad around?" Asriel shakes his head, "They went out a little while ago for a walk and said they would be back in an hour or so." You nod acknowledging what he told you and start walking past him in the direction of your bedroom.

As you're moving past Asriel he turns to wraps his arms behind you, "Bro, just know whatever you decide to do, I'll be there for you. You don't need to be alone like before." You turn enough to give him a smile, "Thanks Azzy, but I decided I need to start facing my past. I decided to go through with it and allow Gaster to run the test, but I'm happy to know you will be there f-for m-me."

Asriel noticed your voice is getting shaky and you're trembling. He looks up to notice tears welling up in your eyes, "I-I know y-you'll be there w-with me, b-but I-I'd be lying i-if I s-said I wasn't afraid..." You voice trails off and you turn to wrap your own arms around him, tears rolling down your face soaking into his sweater and Asriel hugs you tighter. "Shh, It'll be okay Bro. We'll get through this and I'll be with you until the end."

You both head back to your bedroom as Asriel continues to comfort you. You both lost track of time, Toriel and Asgore walk in returning from their walk. They call out for Asriel and they hear him reply from down the hall. They walk to the room and notice Asriel with his arm still around you, your head resting on his shoulder. Toriel spoke first, "My child are you okay? If you don't feel up to seeing Gaster then you..." You weakly speak up, "No, it's alright. I thought about it and decide to go through with it."

They both come over to join in comforting you and don't bring it up for the rest of the day. Your first day visiting Gaster laboratory is very nerve racking. Gaster was not happy working around Asriel, but knew this was the only way you'd agree to allow him to run any test. He made due and his interest about your Soul outweighed any annoyances he had to put up with. Days turned into weeks of work and you met another skeleton by the name of Sans during your time there.

He assisted Gaster with analyzing the collected data. The data they got wasn't making much sense to them and you asked questions yourself. Before long you developed an interest in all the information and got absorbed in it as they both explain what they believed so far, but it was still far-fetched. They showed you how to use the computers in the lab and you found yourself assisting with the work when not laying on the table as they ran test and your studies.

For the lack of technology, you are amazed in what they managed to scrounge up from the garbage that falls down here. You turned twelve and it was the first time you celebrated your birthday. Toriel made a delicious cake and you got some clothes made by her. Asriel gave you a robot figure that he found, it was a little beat up, but you liked it regardless. Asgore made tea to have with the cake and it was great.

You found yourself going to Gaster's place for what would most likely be the final test they needed to run on you. After the test are over with you asked if you could continue to come by, Gaster at first would have been against it, but over these last few weeks he was impressed in how much and how quickly you are learning everything they taught you. Even Toriel thought they would be great at teaching your lesson on science since you were spending so much time with them.

You spent time assisting them around the lab when you could, but at the end of the day you were still a kid and Toriel had to pick you up when you stayed out to late. You had fallen asleep at the lab and Toriel carried you back home and put you to bed. You awoke the next morning, but little did you know that today your peaceful days were about to get bumpy.

Asriel and you were walking through Snowdin to visit the ruins. As you entered all your hair was standing on end and you felt something was wrong, but was forgotten when Asriel called to you from up ahead. You continued to pondering some stuff as you walked on and didn't realize Asriel had ran so far ahead of you until you heard him scream. You rushed to him and as you entered the area you saw three-six legged robots with pincers and saw blade arms.

One of them was on top of Asriel as he tried to get it off of him. You run towards it and tackle it off of him and then threw it against the back wall of the cavern. While you are dealing with that one the other two made their way towards Asriel. He was trying to scour away from them as he worked to get to his feet. He managed to throw a couple of fireballs at them, but it didn't have any effect. You see this and attempt to make your way towards him when you feel something grab your leg.

You look down and notice the previous robot you thought you dealt with grabbing your leg. You sent a bolt of lightning down onto it and you did your best to guard yourself from the explosion as it sent you skidding back across the ground. You only suffered minor burns and cuts from the debris. As you turn back you see one the the robot strike Asriel in the arms with a saw blade, he screams from the injury, but was then grabbed and thrown against the wall by the same robot.

As he impacted the wall his eye went wide before he slumps to the ground laying unconscious. A dark cold expression on your face as anger welled. Your form changes as your features turn more feral, more fur growing over you entire body and you pupils change to look more like a cats eyes. In a heartbeat you were on top of the one that hurt Asriel and punch straight down through its body. As you leap off, the robot explodes and you land in front of Asriel to protect him from the flying debris.

Pieces from the debris embed themselves in your back and you flinch in slight pain, but shake it off focusing on protecting Asriel. You turn to set your sights on the last one and snap your finger as a pillar of fire surrounds it. You snap your finger again as a bolt of lightning shoots down the center of it and you hear it explode. The pillar seemed to contain the debris and explosion and once it was over the spell dissipates.

Using your claws, you do your best to remove some of the debris from your back. The wound heal almost instantly and you turn to check up on Asriel. Besides the large cut on his arm nothing seemed to be broken. You pick him up and in a blink of an eye you're both home. You walk in and Toriel looks up from a book she is reading to greet you, but her words drop off at the sight of you and Asriel.

The extra fur that had grown on you face, your eyes and your larger form has left her stunned. You ignore this as you make your way to the bedroom, you speak, but as you do you hear your voice was much deeper, "Mom could you get me the first-aid kit, I need to treat Azzy injuries and I'll explained what happened to us while I'm doing so." It took her a few moment to snap out of it, but she does as you asked.

A blood trail was left on the floor on the way to the room and you lay Asriel down on the bed. Moments later Toriel comes in handing you the first-aid kit. You clean up around the wound and keeping it brief you use a bit of healing magic to slow the bleeding. You bandage up the injury and then take care of any other nicks he may have. You explained to Toriel what happened at the ruins as she looked at the scorching of your shirt along with the holes in it.

She lifts up your shirt and notice a few pieces of metal in you back that you weren't able to reach. She does her best to pull them out a gently as she can. You notice this and winces a bit. She watches the wounds heal at an alarming rate and you notice the look on her face. "My blessing and my curse, if I could only apply it to others, but I'm stuck with a healing spell that I'm not very good at casting. But thanks to the information I learned from the book you gave me I think I'm getting better at it."

You climb up on the bed and lay down next to Asriel, pulling the blanket over both of you, "I'm going to take a catnap this whole ordeal left me a little drained." Toriel gives you both a kiss and leaves to let both of you to rest. She sits back in her chair thinking about what you told her, " _Why was such things in the ruins in the first place? I'm going to have Asgore restrict entry into the ruins until we make sure it safe."_

A few hours passed and Asgore returns home and as he walks in he see's a troubled look on Toriel's face. "Tori, is everything alright? I recognize that look which tells me something is bothering you." She sighs, "Gorey our children have encountered some trouble in the ruins today. Asriel and Broderick got hurt, but they are safe and resting at the moment." Asgore moves to take a seat on the couch now concerned.

"I see, do you know what has happened?"

"They were attacked by some sort of robots. They were in the ruins, at the same area Asriel and I found Broderick. How or why these robots were there I'm not sure of, but we should keep anyone from entering the ruins until we can assess the situation." Asgore strokes his hand through his beard, "This is most concerning. I'll check out the area in the morning and post guards to the entrance of the ruins. I wonder if any of this ties to our child? Nothing has come to the underground since the barrier placement, first Broderick falls down here and a year later these robots."

"I wonder if the barriers magic has wavered or the barrier works differently then we have always assumed."

"Until we know we'll take precautions if anymore humans or machines fall down here. We should see if we can find out more information from the surface and the only one who can do so is Broderick. I don't like the idea of him beyond the barrier, but he is the only link we have to the surface. Beside he'll need to return those books soon and why waste a trip."

Toriel still doesn't look enthusiastic about this plan, but she gives a sigh, "I'll agree to this only because he needs to make a trip, but then I rather limit this to emergencies only. I don't like the idea of him being up there alone and having no way of knowing if he's okay or not."

Asgore nods, "Agreed, So how are they both doing otherwise?"

"Physically they both seem okay, but I'm worried how this maybe affecting them mentally. I sure Asriel will be fine after some time, but Broderick may see this recent trouble as his fault and blame himself for not being able to protect Asriel completely. It's amazing how he's been able to proceed forward all these years after what was a very painful upbringing. I like to think we have helped him to an extent over the last year he's been down here."

"There's isn't much we can do about the past and all we can do is help him have a better future. Even though it's disheartening for someone so young to go through such things, he still found the strength and determination to move forward. Not many would be able to do the same. I'm going to quickly notify the guards to post someone at the ruins entrance."

Toriel nods, "I'm going to prepare dinner, I'm sure they'll be hungry when they wake up and it'll help take my mind off this for a little while." Around this time Asriel stirred in bed, his eyes slowly opening and adjust to his surroundings. He noticed he is back in his bed and felt an arm draped over him. He smile as he looks at you sleeping peacefully, " _I guess we manage to get out of another situation, but I'm sure we worried mom and dad again. Why were such things in the ruins in the first place?"_

Asriel tries to wiggle out from under your arm, but winces from the pain in his arm, "Careful Azzy, you took a rather nasty hit and I wasn't able to fully treat the cut. I was going to apply another treatment of healing magic once I rested a bit." He looks at you and notice you are now awake with a smile on your face. "I'm sorry Bro, I didn't mean to wake you. Seems like you manage to get me out of another situation I walked into. My magic wasn't very effective in fending them off."

His eyes dart down at the bed with a look disappoint, "Hey it's not like either of us were expecting something like that waiting in the ruins and you tried your best. I think I lost it down there, between my sudden change of appearance and carrying you home in my arms I kind of freaked mom out." You chuckle lightly. Asriel looks at you slightly confused, "I guess her seeing me hurt would do that, but what do you mean about your appearance?"

"Let's just say, I was feeling more catty then normal. I really let the cat out of the bag." You chuckle at the bad puns and felt Sans has rubbed off on you a little from the time you spent in the lab together. Asriel was still confused by what you meant, "I don't get it..." You snicker a bit more before laughing louder. "You could also say, the whole situation really got my goat." Tears were forming in your eyes from laughing so hard as you roll over and fall out of the bed.

Asriel looks over the side of the bed and is thinking you finally lost it. Toriel comes in the room to investigate what all the laughter is about. She blinks as she notices you laughing on the floor and she looks at Asriel who shrugs. "Asriel, what is going on? What is Broderick laughing about?" Toriel didn't mind seeing you laughing after what happened today, but it did have her concerned.

"I don't know mom, he was telling me about when he brought me back. He said when you saw him that he looked different. That he was feeling more catty and he let the cat out of the bag. That the situation really got his goat. I really don't understand." Toriel put her hand over he mouth to suppress a snicker, but ending up laughing herself.

Asriel was still left in the dark, but as you manage to work yourself up off the floor enough you kiss him on his snootle. Asriel is taken aback, a blush forming on his cheeks. "I'll fill you in on it later Azzy, but your so adorable when you're confused." Toriel just giggles and follows up, "Well if you two are feeling well enough I made dinner."

"That sounds great mom. I just need a minute to take care of something for Azzy before we eat." She nods and heads back to the kitchen. You make your way back up onto the bed. You undo the bandages on Asriel's arm, "I'm sorry you got hurt back there Azzy. I felt something was off when we entered the ruins, but I just ended up dismissing it. I should have been on my guard and keeping a better eye on you."

Asriel shakes his head, "If you weren't there at all I'm sure I wouldn't be here right now. If the worst that came from all this is a cut on my arm and some bruises then I should count myself lucky." You hold up your hands as the green aura surrounds your hands. The wound on Asriel's arm closing more, but Asriel could tell it still took a lot of effort to cast and focus on the spell. You manage to heal most of it, but you stopped before the spell completely exhausted you.

"That the best I can do at the moment, but the worst of it is healed. I still got a long way to go before I master this spell."

"It's fine Bro, it feel better and hardly hurts anymore. I don't want you exhausting yourself on my account." You get up and grab the first-aid kit that was still by the bed and bandage his arm back up. "I'll finish healing your arm tomorrow, but for now I like to get something to eat." You both head out and take a seat at the table just as Toriel brings a couple plates over with dinner on them. Half-way through your meal, both you and Asriel hear the door open and shut as Asgore walks in.

He takes a seat at the table and joins you two, Toriel comes out with two more plates for her and Asgore. Now that your all at the table Asgore brings up the matters of today. He asks if you're willing the next time you head up to the surface to see if there maybe any information available about the barrier and possibly find out anything on these robots.

"I guess I'm fine with that. I want to know why they were in the ruins myself, something seemed familiar about them after I had time to think about it. I have to return those books anyway and I'll look around the library about any information they might have about Mt. Ebott that could give us a clue about the barrier. Are you both okay with this, I don't want to stay up there any longer then need be and have you worry about me."

They both nod as Asgore speaks, "We'll of course be worried about you, but this latest trouble could have lead to more monster getting hurt if you both haven't stumbled upon it first. Which is why we're permitting you spend the extra time on the surface. You're the only one able to pass through the barrier safely. If there was another way to allow us to go then we would, but even if we could go we'd stand out to much."

"That's a good point, I mean hiding my ears and tail is a little easier then hiding a goat monster." You look over and see the worried look on Asriel's face, "Hey don't worry Azzy, I manage to survive eleven rough years up there. I wish I had some money so I could bring back-" You are interrupted by Toriel setting a gold coin on the table. "Is this enough my child, I'm not sure what the currency is like anymore, but..."

Your face goes pale as you stare in disbelief, "I-I couldn't accept this. I wouldn't even know what to do with how much money I could get for it. I've never seen a gold coin of this size in my life and I've seen a lot of valuables come and go." You reach out with a shaky hand wanting to touch it to confirm it was real. You touch the metallic surface and pick it up in your hand.

They both look at each other with a smile, "You are most welcome to it my child, we want to help you in anyway we can. If you need let us-" You cut Toriel off, "More? I can't believe your letting me have this. I couldn't possibly ask for more, this one coin is more then any child my age should have. Are you sure your both fine with this?" They both nod and smile in approval. You examine the coin closer and then notice the picture of monsters on both sides which may raise questions.

"Um, could I possibly get gold equal to this in its raw state? The pictures of the monsters on this coin may raise some questions if I exchange it for money." Asgore replied first, "I'm sure we can manage to do so, but for now let us just relax for the rest of the evening." After dinner, the night winds down and you feel the spell you cast earlier catching up with you. You give a yawn and decide to turn in early.


	5. Chapter 5

Days fly by quicker then you expected and you found yourself in front of the barrier. Your family is there to see you off. Giving them all one last hug, Asgore hands you a pouch with the delta rune symbol on it and you open it to find the gold you asked for. You're still shocked they're giving you such a gift, the only items you every gotten were from nearby dumpsters. You smile at them, pocketing the pouch and slinging the bag which contains the library books over your shoulder.

Second thoughts about doing this ran through your mind. You shake them aside, "I'll be home as soon as I can." You look over at Asriel, "Azzy, while I'm gone stay away from anything dangerous." Asriel looks a bit annoyed and walks over gently punching you in the arm, "Don't act like you can't get into any trouble yourself. We'll be fine til you get back, now get going before you make this harder then it needs to be." You both grin at each other and with a final nod you turn and walk through the barrier.

You take your time walking through the city, thoughts entering your head, " _I never thought after ten years of pain with my ex-parents and a year in a lab that I would end up below a mountain. Now I have such a caring family that has given me more then I could every ask for. I going to repay that kindness and if finding information about the barrier is the first step, then I'm more then happy to do whatever it takes."_ Arriving at the library you walk in and head to the counter.

You remove the books from the bag and hand them to the lady. Once the books are checked back in you make your way around the library seeing what information you can gather about MT. Ebott. What you find isn't much, mostly what seemed like fairy tale, but nothing that helped you. Sighing you decide to take care of exchanging some of the gold in your pocket. The place you went to was nice, but the man behind the counter was suspicious about a boy your age having the amount of gold on you.

You explained that you traveled a lot and panned for gold with family. This is what you collected over the last couple of years. He still seemed wary, but let you trade in half of the amount from the pouch. You got around five hundred dollars and the man tell you as your leaving, "Be careful out there, you don't want to paint yourself as a target carrying that kind of cash on you." You nod to him and continue on your way.

So having no luck in the current city you're in, you purchase a map at a corner store and move onto the next city. Not knowing this city at all you look in a phone book for Libraries and take down the address. You wave down a taxi and tell them where you like to go. Though after spending time looking through what this library has, you still came out empty handed. Using a computer at the library you ran a search for any information on magic, monsters, or legends. A couple of items came up for the city you are in(Dapplemourne).

Acquiring the time on the computer and you stomach rumbling, you jot down the information for those two locations. You look across the street and notice a fast food place. Heading inside you order up around twenty dollars worth of food and take a sit. Toriel would be angry with you if she knew the garbage you're currently scarfing down. You give a shudder at the image you mind gave you, but continue on with your meal. You think about what you could get everyone back home for a gift.

You know Asgore really liked tea and his watering can is in bad shape. Toriel frying pan has seen better days for sure. It never was pristine to begin with, but now not even magic could keep it from its inevitable fate. As for Azzy he didn't have a lot of entertainment in the underground. They only had an older television, but an old retro console with a few games would be a definite improvement. Though something else you all could use is a major upgrade on your cell phones.

Sure they did the job of keeping you all in touch, but they're bulky and inconvenient. With gifts in mind you decide to check on these other address you have. Throwing away your trash and heading out you grab another cab, but the first location turns out to be a dud. Just a tourist trap, but the other location definitely had your fur on end. You walk down the ally and through a beaded curtain down some stairs. A creepy looking women staring at you the whole time. The décor looked as though something may spring out from the shelve at any minute.

In a raspy voice, the women speaks to you, "May I help you with something?" You gulp, you're not sure why this person has you on edge, you knew you could easily fend yourself from any threat she could be. You slowly give a nod, "I was looking for anything pertaining to old magic, legends of monsters, or anything about Mt. Ebott." Her one good looking eye grows wide, "And why would one so young be so interested in such old forgotten myths?" A shudder rolls down your neck, your mind trying to come up with a response.

She move around the counter to move closer to you. You're instincts kick in and you jump back a little. She give a eerie chuckle, "Hehe, what's wrong child? You afraid of little old me? You should be more scared of what your asking me about. Though, that's if you were a normal child." An strong gust of wind blows through the room and towards you. You raise your hands up, but the gust of wind blows your hood off exposing your cat ears.

You attempt to replace your hood as quickly as possible, but it was much to late to hide what she saw. "Hehe, as I expected. I could feel something was off about you, but seeing those ears prove my suspicions correct. So again I'll ask you, what do you need with such taboo arts and myths?"

You planned to leave, but as you glance towards the stairs they're no longer there. Taking up a defensive stance, you prepare for whatever else she might do. Moments go by, but nether of you make any advances towards the other.

She gives a sigh, "Listen child, I'm not going to hurt you, but that which your seeking could. I want to make sure I'm not sending someone to any early grave. I promise you whatever you tell me will not leave my lips, as much as you may not believe me. Though once you tell me if you want to silence me for sure, I will allow you to take my life, and you may leave here unharmed." Your stunned at her words and you try to find your voice. After taking a few deep breathes to calm yourself you begin to speak.

"I'm not sure what you did, but now I feel that you hold a clue to what I am looking for. What I'm looking for is a way to protect the ones I love and care about. The problem is the magic that is used to keep them trap has been lost for a very long time. So this is the reason I'm looking for such information." She nods and heads to a backroom, beckoning you to follow. You do so, but you're still being cautious as you proceed forward. In the back is a circular room with shelves filled with books and a table with two chairs in the center.

She motions toward the chair closest to you and turns to a shelf removing a book from it. She come over to take a seat and notices you still standing. "This may take a bit, I would suggest you have a seat. I promise I'm not going to do anything to you. Also remove that hood of yours, you do not need it here." You feel so unsure of what to do, against your better judgment you do as she asks. Taking a seat across from her, she opens the book she has and turns it to a certain page.

"So first I would like to ask, what do you know about magic?"

"I know it is real, but I rather not say how I know." She nod, "Fair enough and you're correct. Though what remains of such knowledge has either been lost or scattered over time, but here is a child asking me of such topics. From what you said earlier though, you gave away your intentions. You spoke about your family being trapped by magic. I assume you speak of those beneath Mt. Ebott, am I right?" You bite your lip and give a reluctant nod. She smiles at you, "I would have been disappointed if you weren't forth coming, but now that I know what you seek, sadly I must inform you that I do not have access to such."

You mumble and curse under your breath. You let her know more then you wanted, but after all that she didn't have what you're looking for. She notices your expression and give you another smile. You weren't sure what that was about, but before you could ask her, she continued, "However, that doesn't mean I can not help you and possibly point you in the proper direction that which you seek. I can tell from your aura that you have the ability to cast magic and I like to help you with that. Would you be willing to show me a bit of the magic you know?"

You once again want to refuse, but again something nagged you to trust her. It's beginning to annoy you, but you bring a hand up in front of you and bring forth a small flame. Her eyes go wide, but she regains her composure quickly, "I must say in all my years I never seen anyone able to do what you have. I sensed the magic being cast, but you did not speak any words. For human mages this is a requirement, but you're not bound by such requirements. Interesting."

"I have a requirement, but your right that I don't need to do so. Though the magic is still based on the magic mages from long ago used." Pulling forth the book Toriel gave you, you lay it on the table in front of you with your hand resting on top of it. The women eyes seer with anger, "Where do you get that book?" Taken aback by her anger for a moment, you calm yourself and continue.

"This was given to be by my family, which was given to them by a mage." Her anger disappears and her shoulders slump, "I should have know seeing it in someone else possession, but I had a small bit of hope that the owner of that book was still alive." Now your confused, "I don't see how, considering how old-" She interrupts you, "Let's just forget what I said and continue the topic at hand. I must ask, how much have you been able to gather from the book you hold?"

"Truthfully, less then I like. Sure I manage the first few pages, but I still have a lot I can't translate." She chuckles, "Well I'm not surprised, but you manage quite well for one someone so young. I've known generations of people that spent their lives trying to decipher what's in books like that and not gather even a single-" You interrupt her on what she currently said, "Generations? Sure your old, but there's no way you could know a generation-" She cuts you off, "Hehe, I meant heard, not known. When you get older the mind is the first this to go."

She clears her throat, "Back on the subject of the book, I'm curious in how you have manage to decipher so many pages?" You shrug, "Went to the library and look through different books on languages." She burst out laughing, it echoing through the room. She wipes a tear away from her eye.

"Boy, were you not listening to me earlier, there's no way you could have done something so trivial to decipher the pages you have. Do you honestly think a mage would make it so simple to access their life work. No, I feel other forces are at work and that's what is allowing you to translate the pages."

Dumbfounded, you look back down at the book, but then it dawns on you that make so much more sense. Thinking back to that time at the library, you felt your hand was being guided at times, but you always shrugged it off. You look up at her, "Its possible about what you said about an outside source, but I always shrugged it off. I've also have been having a nagging feeling going against my better judgment if I should trust you or not."

"Well I'm glad this feeling has lead you to trust me in the end and I pray it continues to guide you. I'd like you to take this book I have had in front of me." She pushes the book that's on the table towards you. You reach out turning so the words are facing you, but what really threw you for a loop is the text looked almost exactly what's in your book. You look back up, shock on your face, "This looks nearly identical to what's in my book? Who are you?" She doesn't answer, she just gets up and walks back to the front of the shop.

You grab both of the books in hand and follow after her wanting answers, but as you move through the curtain you find yourself back in the ally. You blink in confusion, you turn around to face the shop, but only come across what is now a solid wall. You move closer to the wall and place a hand on it and it was indeed very solid. You slam you fist against it in anger, your one damn lead and now it's gone. She didn't even bother to give you the directions she promised you, all she did was leave you with more questions then answers. Story of your life.

You then remember your hood wasn't covering your head and quickly pull it back up. You lean against the wall, taking a moment to pocket your book. As you do, you notice something that wasn't in your pocket before. You remove the object out of you pocket and find an old yellowish piece of paper. You don't remember having anything like that, you unfold it and find what appears to be a map? It was hard to say, it was faded and you notice text on it you couldn't make heads or tails of.

You look at the other book in your hand and notice the old leather bound book had more characters you didn't know on its cover. If you didn't already have enough mystery to work with, you added a book and map to you collection. It was getting late and you still wanted to grab gifts for you family on the way back home. Since you didn't know Dapplemourne well enough, you headed back to Bloomdon to do your shopping. You acquire all the gifts along with some new cell phones. You have a feeling they wouldn't work in the underground, but Gaster and Sans could probably work something out.

It was getting dark once you got back to the entrance to the underground, you head back through the barrier and found a couple of the guard-dogs there. You greet them and give them a pat on their heads, which they're happy about, but remember they are on duty and resume their post. You head up the stairs and take the usual route home. As you enter, you get tackled to the floor by Asriel, but you do your best to give him a hug which was hard with everything in you hands.

He gets up off of you and gives you a hand up, "Sorry Bro, I'm just happy your back, it was getting pretty late." Toriel hearing the commotion comes out of the kitchen to investigate the noise. Seeing you have return she walks over to give you a hug, "My child, we were getting worried. Are you okay? Did you have any problems while you were out?" You shake your head, "Nothing to concerning, but I hit more dead ends then I felt I got any answers."

"It's okay my child, we are just glad to have you back home. We'll leave matters concerning the barrier for a later time. For now you must be hungry and tired from your day." You nod, "I'm more mentally tired then physically, but I could definitely go for a hot meal and a bath." Asriel looks down at the bags that lay at your feet, "Bro what did you bring back with you?" You look down forgetting about the gifts you brought back during the moment.

You reach down handing Toriel a bag and then handing a large bag to Azzy. They both pull the items out of the bag and Toriel looks happy as she lean down to give you a hug, "My child this is lovely, now I can retire out my old frying pan. I was worried how much more use I could get out of it." You smile and look over at Azzy. You notice him turn the large box around in his hands trying to figure out what it is. You giggle at his confusion, "I guessing from the look on your face you haven't seen anything like that."

He looks over at you and shakes his head, "What is it?" You spend the next few minutes explaining to him what the console is and how it works. Sure you really didn't know much about them yourself, but you asked the sales person questions on how to hook it up and he was more then happy to go over it with you. He has a look of excitement on his face and wants to play it right away. He drags it over to the TV and starts unpacking everything. Toriel chuckles at Asriel's excitement and then looks down at the remaining bags.

"My child if I may ask, what are in the other two bags?" You point at one of the bags, "That's a gift for dad. I know how much he enjoys tea and his poor watering can seen better days. As for the other bag, I got us some new cell phones, but they most likely won't work down here. I figure Gaster and Sans could modify them so they can. Is dad around? I'd like to give him his gift?" Toriel shakes her head, "He still out attending to some matters, but he should be home soon."

"Okay, well I'll just take the bags into the bedroom for the meantime." Picking up the bags you head down the hall, Azzy asking for your help to hook up the game console as you pass. "I'll give you a hand in a sec Azzy, let me just drop this stuff off in our room." He give you a nod as he goes back looking over the console. Once in your room you place the bags next to the toy chest and reach into the one with the cell phones.

Pulling out the book that old women gave you, you go over to the dresser opening one of the drawers that has your clothes in it. You bury it beneath all you clothes for now. You'll find a better place to keep it later, but with Azzy wanting your help hooking up the game system and your stomach demanding food the book is going to have to wait. You get the console hooked up for Azzy and let him play first, but he wanted you to play the game with him. "I will Azzy, just let me eat dinner first. Mom said you all already ate earlier, but put my portion in the fridge."

He looks disappointed, but his disappointment is forgotten as he gets drawn into the game. You smile knowing that will keep him busy while you get food. As you head towards the kitchen you notice Toriel bringing out a plate of food for you. You take a seat at the table and she sets it down in front of you. You dig in and watch Toriel head over to her favorite chair. She picks up a book from the nearby table and opens it up. You have a feeling that book is going to play a part in your and Azzy day tomorrow.

As your finishing up you meal, the front door opens and you see Asgore come into view. He goes over to Asriel noticing him playing the 'new' game console you got him. Azzy is so engrossed in the game he doesn't even take notice of him. He looks over at Toriel who wave him over, he leans down to nozzle their noses together. You chuckle, Asgore looks up to notice you at the table and makes his way over.

He takes a seat and joins you at the table, "So my son, how did things go up on the surface?" You give him a brief recap of you ventures, but leave out the part with the old lady and the disappearing shop.

He runs a hand through his beard, "You did your best, but looking for long forgotten knowledge was bound to be a difficult task to begin with. I feel it will take more then a single trip to really start uncovering anything."

In a low voice so Toriel can't hear, "Sounds like you have intentions to have me make more trips to the surface in the future." He glances over at Toriel and leans closer to you, "I must do all I can to protect the other monsters in the underground, but sending one of my children out into possible dangers conflicts with my emotions verses my responsibilities. I know you mother feels the same way, but having you make more trips will definitely be need in the future. I'm just not sure she'll agree with me, but I'll figure that at another time."

You both feel stares on you and look over. Toriel is looking back a glaring at you both. Feeling it was probably a good idea to move away from the table, you make your way to join Azzy and Asgore heads to the kitchen. You watch Toriel put her book down and head towards the kitchen, " _Whelp looks like they may discuss that matter sooner then expected."_ You both spend the next couple of hours playing the different games you bought and you're both enjoying yourselves. Toriel eventually tells you both to take a bath and get ready for bed.

Once your both cleaned up and dressed in your pj's, you sit next to Azzy on his bed, "So enjoy the gift I got you?"

"Yeah, it felt nice to sit back and have fun. After how rough things have gotten within the last couple of years. With the recent robots in the ruins, you able to go through the barrier, and now with the possibility the barrier might not work like we thought. It just nice to forget it all, we shouldn't have to worry about all these responsibilities, that should be left up to mom and dad."

"Yeah, but it's possible I may need to make future trips to the surface Azzy. I don't think this is something mom and dad can do on their own." Asriel is giving you a worried look, "Come on Azzy, don't give me that look. It's not like I'm going tomorrow, but both mom and dad know they'll have to send me back up there eventually." Asriel lean against you and you put and arm around him. "Bro, do you think I'll get to see the surface someday? Be able to see the sky, the sun, the stars, the moon and all the other things the surface had to offer."

You gaze down at your feet, "I like to believe that it will be possible for you and all monster to be free one day, but I don't think humans would be ready for monsters yet. They can't even treat each other properly and adding monster to the mix would just be trouble waiting to happen." Asriel was going to say something, but the door opened and Toriel entered the room. "My children it is time for bed, you have a great deal that awaits you tomorrow." You both nod and you crawl into your.

She tucks both of you in and give you both kisses on your foreheads before turning off the light. "Goodnight my children." you both say goodnight and she close the door behind her. Keeping you voice down you turn to face Asriel's bed, "Azzy, can you hear me?" He shifts his body so he facing you bed and replies, "Yeah, what is it Bro?"

"I promise I'll find a way so that you'll have a chance to see the surface for yourself, but I don't have any idea when that will happen. I know seven human Souls can break the barrier, but I don't think I could kill humans for that purpose. There's got to be another way to bring the barrier down that no one knows about." Asriel is silent for a while, but you hear him speak, "I don't want to hurt people, that doesn't seem the right way we should gain our freedom."

The room is quite for a good ten minutes and decided it was time to stop talking about the barrier for the rest of the night. "We should get some sleep Azzy, there will be time to talk about this later." You both let sleep take you and wait to see what tomorrow holds.


	6. Chapter 6

Of course sleep is what you like to be getting right now, but apparently your mind has other plans. You keep thinking about that book and map the old women gave you. Hell you never even got a chance to ask her name. You sit up in bed and look over at Azzy. You could hear him lightly snoring away, " _At least one of us is getting some shut eye."_ You pull the covers off you and make your way over to your dresser drawer. You gently open it and retrieve the book and then you grab your hoodie reaching into the pockets to grab two more items.

You make your way to the door and with you quietly creep out the bedroom shutting the door gently behind you. The lights in the hallway are still on and you could hear talking coming from either the living room or kitchen. You make your way to the foyer and glance into the living room, but you don't see anyone. You sneak over to the front door and quietly slink out of the house. You let out a breathe you didn't realize you were holding. You decide to head to the old abandon section of the ruins to studies the items in hand.

You enter one of the old abandon homes and find a dusty table to set the book, map drawing, and the travel map down upon it. Taking the travel map you open it fully and lay it out over the table. You spend the next few hours to match up the map fragment to the map on the table, but you're not finding anything that looks remotely close. You lean back in the chair, frustrated and tired, "A _m I chasing phantom locations? Nothing matches up, hell I'm starting to wonder if that old lady is just pranking me."_

You rub your eyes, trying to think what you could be missing and the old women's word ring in your mind, " _Do you think a mage would make their life's work so easy to decipher."_ That right, there are words on the paper and they probably held some clue to follow. Only one issue, you had no idea what any of it said. Looking down at the paper, the words suddenly look different to you. You rub your eyes again thinking your just seeing things.

As you look down again the words aren't in that cryptic writing, "What the hell?" You say to no one in particular. You read them out loud and the paper glows brightly. You drop it back on the table and covering your eyes with your hand. As the glow dims, you move your hand away to look at what happened. What you see is the map piece has completely change and is over a section of the travel map.

You pick it up and notice they matched, " _Huh, well that's convenient, but why can I now suddenly make out what's written on the map? Well I have my next possible location to visit. Lets just hope I can... Shit mom isn't just going to let me go up to the surface. I can't just say, "Hey mom, I found this magic map piece that I didn't mention yesterday. Can I please go to the surface to check it out." I can't ask dad either. So my final option, sneak out at midnight while everyone asleep. Lovely, more secrets._ "

You start folding the travel map back up and place both maps in the book. You give a yawn and now realize how tired you are. You head home, sneaking back in and not alerting anyone you've been out. Making your way back into your room you crawl back into bed. You only manage to get maybe two or three hours of sleep before Azzy wakes you up for breakfast. Your trying to keep your eyes open at the table and keep yawning more then you like.

Toriel brings out breakfast and notices how tired you look, "My child are you alright? Did you have problems sleeping? Are you not feeling well?" She places her hand on you forehead, but you just reply, "I'm just feeling more tired today then normal, but I don't feel sick or anything. I should-" She cuts you off, "Even so I think we should swing by and see Gaster to make sure. I don't want to take the risk of you getting worse if it's something that can be prevented."

You just decide to let Toriel take you to see Gaster, you're just to tired to complain and it has been a while since you last dropped in. It took about an hour of different series of test before Toriel was convinced that your fine. She kept glancing at you from time to time on the way to magic lessons and when she did you just returned her a reassuring smile. At least until magic lessons, you of course are working on your healing magic and Azzy was working on his control over his fire magic. You didn't get very far to say the least, about five minutes in and you slumped over asleep.

Toriel turns to check on you and notice you laying on your side. Concern and worry fills her as she move over to check you, but sighs a breath of relief once she realizes your just asleep. Not wanting you to nap on the chilly floor, she scoops you up in her arms and calls Asriel over. "I'm afraid we'll need to cut lessons short for today. It appears Broderick is more exhausted then he was letting on. Asriel maybe you can find out why he's so tired once he wakes up. I'm sure he just doesn't want to worry us, but he seems more open talking to you about matters."

"Well only if he feels like he wants to. I don't like to pry of if don't have to ." He looks up at you, seeing the dark rings under your eyes, "It looks as though he really didn't get any sleep last night from the dark bags under his eyes."

"That's why I was so concerned at breakfast. Gaster said he was fine and Broderick was saying the same. I just felt I was worrying over nothing, but I should have insisted he stayed home and rested regardless."

You all get home and Toriel puts you in your bed. She has Asriel work on his studies for now and she calls Asgore briefly let him know what happened today. Several hours pass, your eyes slowly open as realization hits you, " _Shit, I must have passed out. Mom was probably concerned, maybe I should worked on an easier spell. No, I knew how tired I was. I should have just told mom I didn't sleep well from the start. Well no sense worrying about it now, I'll just have to-"_

Your thoughts are interrupted as the door to the bedroom opens and Asriel head pops in to see if your awake, "Evening Bro, I see you're final awake." He comes into the room the rest of the way and closes the door behind him. You watch as he walks over and sit on the bed next to you, "So, I'm just curious if something happened to keep you up last night? Though I'm more asking for mom then myself. So I'll understand if you don't want to talk about it."

You give a light chuckle, "So mom's got you pumping me for information? Azzy I thought we looked out for each other." Azzy waved his hands frantically, rambling apologies. You give another light chuckle, "Relax Azzy, I'm just messing with ya. I don't want to go into details at the moment, but some stuff happened on the surface. I was looking over some information last night and I stayed up a little longer then I should have, but it seems I have a lead to something. I'm just not sure yet. "

"So you think its related to the barrier?" You shake your head, "Like I said, 'I'm not sure'. I'll have to make another trip to the surface to find out. I feel a strong possibility that it does have some to due with magic since it was all cryptic, but I need you to keep this hush-hush for now, okay." Asriel nods, "Sure Bro, though last time you kept something secret it didn't go so well, but if you did tell them all this it'll probably give mom more reason to not let you go. Just don't get carried away and make sure you get some sleep from now on, otherwise mom might really start to pry into the matter."

"I'll keep that in mind and thanks Azzy. Now the hard part, how to proceed? My current options are, wait til mom and dad allow me to take another trip up to the surface or sneak out while everyone asleep. I can already tell with the look on your face you don't like option B. I'm not fond of it myself, but who knows how long it'll before I'm allowed to the surface again. By then my only lead could be gone."

"Well if it's a place how could it be gone? Not like places can up and vanish." You chuckle, "Trust me Azzy, I saw some strange things the other day and places vanishing is not as far-fetched as you think." Asriel tilts his head with a look of curiosity, "Are your saying you saw a place vanish on you yesterday?" You just nod with a amused look on your face, "Never talk to creepy old women if you get the chance Azzy, she gave me a cold departure. She really walled me off. " Azzy is glaring at you, "Bro, that was awful. You know I don't like puns."

"You right Azzy how could I forget, they always get your go-" Before you could finish that sentence you received a face full of pillow and you see Asriel ginning, "Sorry Bro, the opportunity was to purr-fect." You both start laughing and you lazily throw the pillow back at Azzy, but he easily move out of the way. The pillow lands on the floor and Asriel turn back to face you, "You missed-" You boop his nose and let a static shock of electricity from your finger. The fur on his face reacts and puffs out.

"Sorry Azzy, what was that you were saying? The look on your face is completely shocking." He tackles you and you both wrestle your way to the floor. You both try to get the advantage over one another, but you got the upper hand in the end. You pinned him to the floor and then proceeded to tickle him til he surrenders. You roll off of him and as you both take a moment to catch your breath, "Guess... that's... enough for now... want to see if dinner is ready?"

Asriel nod and you help him up, "I'll get... you next time."

"That's what you said last time." You give a cocky grin and he try's to surprise attack in the hallway when he thinks you're not paying attention, but you side step and he just goes running past you. He stumble as he nearly loses his footing, but after a moment regains his balance. He looks at you and your grinning, he has a pouty face and you just laugh. You both continue to the table, but when Toriel see the state your both, she just point down the hall to the bathroom, "Both of you are a mess, I will not permit you at the table in such a state."

You both get cleaned up, Azzy having a little more of a challenge with the fur on his face and head. Dinner went by peacefully, mostly ideal conversation and Toriel saying you have some study lessons you need to make up for. You sigh, but you're two days behind now. Though considering what you have planned later on you might be going for three. You could try and get a little done before bed, but first you really needed a moment to yourself. So you head to the bathroom for a bath.

You think about all the recent stuff that has happened as of late. You realized a couple of days that the symbol you manage to glimpse off of one of the robots was familiar. Then it dawned on you it was the same symbol in the laboratory that performed the experiments on you. It appears they use Mt. Ebott as there dumping ground for failed experiments, but why throw robots down here? Wouldn't it make more sense to take them apart and used the parts for other devices.

You set up a routine to check the ruins on the occasion, the guards kept an eye out at the ruins, but considering Azzy magic had no effect on them you didn't want to leave anything to chance.

It's been quiet since then, but you never knew when something or someone may end up down here.

What worried you is if another human ending up down here like you, disposed of in the underground, but they may end up killing monsters out of fear or they could end up being bloodthirsty killers. You knew your hands are stained with the blood of creatures you've killed.

For a time you actually began to get use to it and that scared you. If you kept going, would you still be who you are or would you have become something more terrifying. Thankfully they brought you to Mt. Ebott when they did, it's the best thing they did for you. Well that's not entirely true, they sure as hell treated you better then you parent, but you knew that it was only to gather results. They personal wouldn't cared much if you got mauled to death or not.

" _Why are you defending them after what they put you through?"_ You drive the thoughts away, your mood was becoming somber. You gently slap the side of you face with your hands, _"Focus on the plan at hand, I've got to be ready to leave out of the house at midnight."_ It was definitely going to be another long night. With how chaotic you life was become you think it might be time to invest in some coffee.

You love Asgore's tea and all, but you're going to need something with a little more kick to it. Sure you knew monster that drink coffee down here, but it's all instant and expired. You're thinking of investing in a french press and some fresh ground coffee. Asgore isn't going to be happy about that, but you don't see why you can't enjoy both. You hear a knock on the door, "Bro, you almost done in there? It's been like forty minutes. Mom wants me to take a bath soon."

"Sorry Azzy, I'll be done soon. Just let me dry off and it's all yours." You sigh and let the water out of the tub. Grabbing a towel nearby and begin to dry off. You brush the tangle out of your fur the best you can. The only part you always needed help with is the fur on your back. You only put on your pajama bottoms and place you shirt over your shoulder. With brush in hand you head to the bedroom. "Hey Azzy before you take a bath, can you help brush the fur on my back? Kind of hard to do myself."

Asriel is looking at you with a bit of embarrassment, a slight tint of pink showing under his fur and slowly nods. It was cute at how he got embarrassed around you even though he's seen you plenty of times without a shirt or pants on. You couldn't blame him though you are well toned for your age. You take a seat on the bed and he slowly goes to work, but he was taking to long and Toriel ended up take over in his place. You didn't mind who brushed your fur out, you're just happy to have it done. The night is winding down and you spent the current moment starring up into the darkness at the ceiling.

Time crawls by slowly, but the light pouring under the door from the hallway finally goes out. " _Well mom and dad must be heading to bed. So that means I got about an hour or so before I need to leave for the surface. I rather not have to sneak out, but time is ticking and I always been impatient about waiting. If they'd just agree to let me go then this would be so much easier for all of us. Sure they still worry, but at least they'd know where I am. Anyway better get ready."_

You go over to pick up the backpack with your two books, maps, snacks and water bottles. You gentle sling it over you shoulders and reach for the door, but you feel a hand on your shoulder. You turn to face the owner and see Asriel standing there. Speaking at a whisper, "Azzy, what are you doing up? I thought you were asleep."

"Bro, I wish you wouldn't go, but I never could stop you once your mind is set on something. Just promise me you'll stay safe and come back to us." You smile at him, "It'll be okay Azzy, I'll either find what I'm looking for or I'm just going to find a bunch of livestock. The place is in the middle of nowhere, just a lot of empty land from what I can tell on the map. I promise you I'll return, but if I'm not back in twenty-four hour you have my permission to tell mom and dad where I went. Until then, do your best to hold out against mom and dad."

He nod and gives you hug. You feel as though he wasn't ever going to let you go, but after a few moment he reluctantly lets you go. You put your hands an the side of his face and tilt his head down slightly. You move forward to kiss him on the forehead. Despite the room being dark, you could make out the shade of red on his cheeks, "I love you Azzy, I'll fight tooth and nail if I have to, but I will return to you, mom, and dad. Now try and get some sleep, If mom see's your tired in the morning she definitely think something is up."

"She's going to know something is up if your not back in the morning. I rather not have to have mom and dad asking me a bunch of question in the morning. Please return before then okay." You just give a nod and ruffle the fur on his head before you head out the door. Azzy watches you leave and guilt washes over him. Every fiber of his being is telling him to go after you, but he already knows you'd be long gone before he could catch up. He slowly crawls back into bed, starring at the door for the next couple of hours before he falls asleep.

You're standing on the side of a dirty road and glancing at the map in your hand. This definitely is the general location of where you needed to be, but there's literally nothing around. You see fields of grass, but nothing screaming, "Jackpot." You sigh, you're so sick of cryptic bullshit at this point. You look at the small piece of paper to see if you missed anything. You think it's suppose to be on the right-hand side of road in the middle of the field, but the field is empty as far as you could tell.

You grumble and just shove everything back in your backpack. Grabbing it, you make your way into the middle of the field and kick at the ground from time to time. You're hardly paying attention as you walk and that when bright light suddenly hits your eyes. You close your eye quickly, raising a hand to shield you eyes and doing your best to look for the source of the light. What you see leave you speechless, you standing in the middle of a forest, the sun shining and stone step leading up.

In the front of the stairs is an archway, " _It looks like what I've seen in some of the books I've read. Is this a shrine of some sort? Hell for that matter, where did it suddenly come from? I swear there definitely wasn't any trees, let alone a whole fucking forest."_ You cautiously climb the steps, keeping an eye on either side of the forest for anything that might jump out at you. When you reach the top your out of breath, hands on you knees, " _How many... fucking steps... do you honestly need?"_

You feel something strike you face, blood dripping down only for a moment and you instinctively leap back. Forgetting that you're near the steps, you barely catch yourself from what certainly would have been a bad time. Extending your claws you look around for what struck your face and in front of you is a young women with a bow. She already has another arrow nocked and trained on you, "Leave here at once, otherwise my next shot will not be just a warning."

You throw your hands up in front of you, "Hold on a minute, I'm not even sure how-" Your unable to finish your sentence as she lets loose her next arrow. You launch a fireball to intercept it, its burns to a cinder and realization sets in you used magic when you didn't mean to. She looks at you with surprise in her eyes, but then she lowers the bow to her side. "Well that is certainly unexpected, magic this day and age is rare and seeing someone so young with it is even rarer. So now a better question, how did you find this place?"

You gather yourself and retract your claws, "I've been looking for some information and found an odd shop located in Dapplemourne down an alleyway. Really didn't get an explanation, but I found myself in possession a piece of paper with a map on it." She moves up to you, "Can you show me this map?" You remove the backpack and unzip the main pouch. You reach in and retrieve it and hold it out to her as she takes it from you. As she looks over the scrap of paper her expression is one of slight annoyance before she lets out a sigh.

"Yagitha hasn't change at all. Always sending people my way, instead of taking some responsibility upon herself. Well you're here now, So what is it your looking for?"

"Well I'm simply looking for information regarding Mt. Ebott." Her expression is doleful, "I assume this has something about those who dwell beneath the mountain. Depending on what you plan to do with such information I may still end up killing you."

"I'm just looking to protect those who I love. I was taken to disappear in that mountain, but I was found by the monster that inhabit it. I've been living with them for the last couple of years, but my brother and I were attack by some crab-like robots. I dispatched them, but not before he got hurt. The problem is that I recognized the symbol that was on them and where they came from. I'm afraid something much worst in time will come to threaten them. What I need to know is, why the barrier isn't keep things out?"

Her expression is still sad, "It wasn't ever meant too. I'm curious, could you tell me about the symbol?"

"It a symbol of a cat-eye overlapping that of a human eye on a book."

"Sadly I know this symbol-" You cut her off before she can finish, "What do you mean you know of it?" She clears her throat, "If you don't rudely interrupt me I'll explain, They're known as a group called, Dualality and they've been around for a long time. I thought I would never hear that name again, we knew they were still around, but our battle with them had gone so poorly. As much as the legends say the war happened between human and monster there was a driving force behind that whole war."

She pause for a moment, "I think we should go back to my home, this will take sometime to explain."

You follow her in silence as you take in what she's told you so far. You come upon a lovely garden and next to that is a simple looking house. This place almost reminds you of the underground. The garden reminds you of the flowers Asgore took pride in. Also the shrine reminds you of the castle as well.

It didn't look at all what you expected.

You both go inside and she motions to a chair next to the fireplace. There's another right across from yours and a small table between them. She didn't seem to own a lot of furniture, a small carpet in the center of the room, some shelves with books and knickknacks around the room. Some object seem to glow with energy and you gaze at the in wonder, but you attention comes back to her as she comes out with a tea set on a tray.

"I though you might like some tea while we talk, I do apologize about earlier, but you must understand very few know of our whereabouts. Seeing someone after being alone for so long was unsettling to say the least. Though from what you have told me and that it was Yagitha who sent you to me, I feel I can trust you."

"I can understand your reaction and It's nice to know the persons name who helped me find you. I didn't really get a chance to ask her before I found myself back in the alleyway." She chuckles at this, "That sounds like her alright. She no a very good host when she has guest, but deep down she is very caring. So I must ask how it is possible to manifest magic without speaking incantations?" You take a moment to pour yourself some tea and add sugar to it.

Pulling back the hood, you reveal your ears as they twitch, happy to be free from the confines of your jacket. She looks at them and smiles, "Hmm, I see. Your features explain the mixed aura I'm sensing from you. You have the presence of human and monster about you. If you don't mind could you tell me how you came to be like this?" You take a deep breath and tell her a compressed version of you life and your time at a Laboratory that belongs to Dualality. You tell her about the testing they performed and how after a year they tossed you down a hole at Mt. Ebott.

"That doesn't make much sense, why throw someone down there who is quite in-depth at magic and with great potential at fighting. They call you a failure, but from what I can see you have turned out quite well. Did you ever overhear why you were a failure to them?" You shake your head, "No, before I was drugged, all I heard was to have me disposed of. The voice of the women sounded annoyed, but said it was an order. Then the door open and a large man grabbed me before I could back away. Next thing I knew I'm in the back of a truck and being driven up Mt. Ebott."

You take a sip of tea before you continue, "If its okay with you, may I ask you a question?"

"You may."

"You were talking about the war earlier, it sounds like something caused monster and human to battle against each other. What was it that lead up to the war?"

She sighs, "From what you probably heard about the war humanity feared monster. They found out monsters can absorb a human Soul and gain great power. Fear is a powerful weapon if used correctly and so the peace between human and monster was shattered. Kingdom sought to slaughter all of monster-kind and only a handful of us felt something was wrong. Seven mages and a handful of knights who did not agree with the debacle and decided to aid the monster in the war. They made plans to escort monster to a safe haven, but they got ambushed on route to the next group of monster and there was many casualties on both sides.

"They manage to gather as many monster refugees groups as they could and made their way to Mt. Ebott, but not before a dozen or so soldiers stumbled upon them. The remain soldier supporting the mages and monster engaged them. They held them at bay long enough for the mages to raise the barrier. The remaining enemy soldier that could compromise the whereabouts of the monster try to flee, but the mages dealt with them before going into hiding themselves. It wasn't until years after the war ended did the mages find out that the ones behind all this was a group of mages named Dualality."

Your eyes go wide and you sit there in disbelief about what you're hearing. "W-wait your telling me they've been around since before the war between monsters and humans?"

"Actually longer, It's complicated, but when magic and power is involved it always is. Short version is that mages were striving together in peace, but a handful of radicals mages had their own idea of how the world should be and thus Dualality was born. Of course the elder mages payed them little mind and cast them out. No one consider them a threat, but they found out to late how wrong they were. As more time passed more were swayed to their cause or brainwashed with magic to do their bidding. A war broke out between the mages of Rethallia and Dualality.

"The Rethallian mages devastated Dualality, they thought them wiped out, but the remaining members hid in the shadow waiting for a chance to arise and able to strike back. That chance didn't come for about three-hundred years, they slowly poisoned each kingdom from the inside out and soon turned their gaze upon the emerging monster race that began over the last hundred years. Secretly they've been abducting monster and found ways to harness the magic within their bodies to empower themselves even more, but it was only a temporary increase.

"Which is why they sought to find a why to make an endless magic source using monster, which is where they used the kingdoms as their puppets to gather monsters for that purpose, but their plan backfired in two ways. One was how fragile monster bodies are, when the fighting broke out the bodies turned to dust rending them useless for Dualalities purpose and they lost control over their puppets. Once the onslaught began they didn't have the power to reverse what they set into motion. The second thing they didn't take into account was the few who were able to resist their control and you know the rest."

You lean back into the chair and your shoulder slump, "If this is all true how am I suppose to protect everyone in Mt. Ebott? I'm just a single child, granted I can use magic and such, but if they've been around for that long what chance do we have?" You notice she's has a smile on her face, "Well to help brighten your defeated attitude, sure Dualality is still around, but they are a shell of their former glory. If they still had the power they once did then they would not be running such experiments to create hybrids."

"That makes some sense now, I mean why would they create a human hybrid if they're as powerful as you described. Well that answer why they made me, but I should get back to the reason I'm here. You said the barrier wasn't meant to keep things out, but is it possible to make a barrier that does?" She sighs, "It might have been possible at one point, but the mages that are left wouldn't be able to help. You see, I'm one of the mages that helped with the barrier, but when we went into hiding the places we created became our prison. We're unable to leave the confines of the magical environments we live in. If we should ever step outside our bodies will succumb to our proper true age."

"So you saying that your trapped here, how have you all not gone crazy from the loneliness, or starved from lack of food?" She chuckles, "We don't require any of the needs from when we lived normal lives. Sleeping, eating, aging are all things that we no longer require. The magic that keeps us outside normal time also maintains our bodies, but to answer your question retaining to the barrier. I do have the spell and could teach you the particulars to be able to cast it, but unless you have a tremendous amount of magic at you disposal it's impossible to do alone."

That news didn't help improve you mood any, you finally found what you're looking for, but now your told you couldn't do it by yourself. "What about monsters, couldn't they help with it. They're made of magic-" She raise a hand, "Unfortunately if they did so then it would destroy them. Only humans with the ability to cast magic could properly be able to do so, but your not an average human. It would be at great risk, but it's possible you may have enough power to place a new barrier. Though it would require the old barrier be removed first. I'm serious about the risk though, doing so may end up costing you your life."

You shake your head, "I'll take that risk, so how do I remove the old barrier without using humans Souls to do so?"

"I'm afraid the requirements is as stated, once a barrier has the requirement etched into it the deed is done. I know the idea of using Souls to do so seem cruel, but in all honesty we had not intended to keep the monster trapped down there for so long. We had plans once we found a way to deal with Dualality and could ensure their safety we would use our own Souls to set them free. Sadly as I said, 'We are also shells of our former selves our Souls are no longer usable for such a task."

You grip the arms of the chair tightly, claws digging deep into them, "So its either kill humans for Souls or monster remain trapped down below Mt. Ebott. Why didn't you make any other way to remove the barrier?"

"We didn't have time to think everything through. We had soldiers on our heels, being held off by our few allies and we did what we could with the limited time we had. I'm sorry I don't have better news for you." You sigh and relax you grip on the chair, "No, I'm sorry. I came here expecting a happy ended or good news, but life should have taught me by now that reality is never that easy. What the minimum amount of time that would be required for me to learn the barrier spell."

"Well that all depends on you, if you got a sharp mind about you and are a quick study I could teach you in roughly two hours."

"I think I could manage that, but that all depends on what time it currently is. This place is hard to judge time, the sun is shining, but before I entered here it was the middle of the night." She laughs, "Haha, You get use to it after a millennium, but the time outside is around three in the morning. I'm assuming from your concern about the time you came here without telling your family." You have a grin on your face, "Yeah, my mom and dad are a little hesitant about me being on this side of the barrier. Concerns for my safety and such, but it's nice to be cared for."

"Well then I guess we should get started as to get you back to Toriel and Asgore." You look up at her with a raised eyebrow in question, "How did you know my mom and dad are Toriel and Asgore? I never once brought that up in conversation." She gets up out of her chair and walks over to a shelf, she grabs what's looks to be a roll of paper and the turns to face you. She places a hand on her hip, giving you a cocky grin, "Did you already forget that I'm a mage. We have our resources of gathering information when needed. Now are we still doing this or have you had a change of heart."

You just give her a cheeky look, "Looking to get rid of me already, I thought with all the time alone you'd enjoy having the company, but before we continue maybe we could do with introductions."

She chuckles, "Of course, when you've been cooped up for so long it's easy to forget such things. My name is Ellana and yours?"

"Broderick, it nice to meet you Ellana." She smiles, "Likewise Broderick." She asks you to come upstairs where there's a larger table with fancier chairs and much more comfy. The room looks to be used for studies and you see objects floating about the room near the ceiling. More book line the walls with a small section with more object that seem to be radiating with their own energy about them.

You take a seat and she grabs what looks to be a monocle of sorts from on of the shelves, "I think it would be faster if you use this. We could spend the time teaching you how to decipher the words properly on the pages, but with you being on a time crunch and all." You nod, "Sound good to me. Can it be used to decipher other things?"

"Depends, what do you have that requires such?" You reach into your backpack that lays at your feet and pull the two books out. You place them on the table, "I have these two book, one Yagitha gave me, the other Toriel gave me. I've manage a few page in the smaller book, but I still haven't to get much more from it."

"It will be of some help with the book Yagitha gave you. We exchanged a lot of information back and forth and I got tired of deciphering everything she gave me. Part of the reason I made the monocle was to speed up the process, but since I created it and all it can always decrypt anything that belongs to me. Though it is magic locked to me, so I'll have to unlock it so your able to use it first." After a few minutes she hands you the monocle and pulls her chair next to yours.

She unfurls the pages in her hand and goes over them with you. It takes you an extra hour before you finally got the complex spell down enough that you wouldn't have it back fire on you. Ellana was happy with how fast you're able to pick it up, "You know, if I was taking apprentices I would offer you a position, but if you did take up such an offer you would be sealed to my fate." You look over at her with a doleful expression, "You know I wish you weren't trapped here, I'd like it if we could visit one another, though if you could do that then you'd be able to help me with my current barrier problem."

"I would've like to do so if that was possible, but meeting you has been its own reward. I wish you the best in the difficulties you have to face ahead of you. Even as weakened as Dualality is, they should not be underestimated. Broderick keep you wits about you and learn to harness the magic I know you'll be able to learn. Use it to protect the ones you love and complete the job we have failed to do. Give monster-kind a proper return to the world." You nod and pack up the scrolls with the barrier spell, along with the monocle Ellana is giving you as a parting gift.

Your both back at the steps and your on the verge of tears of having to leave. You give her a hug and she returns it, "Ellana, thank you for everything. If I can come to the surface without having to sneak out I'd like to visit you again."

"I would enjoy your company as well Broderick, but you should hurry back. If you don't get home soon your going to be missed." You nod and make your way down the long flight of stone step, waving one last time good-bye to her before your out of view. She sighs and once again she stands alone. A wisp of light comes to hover next to her. "You know Ellana you possible signed that child's death. You know the entity helping him is weakening, I know you could sense it."

"I'm aware, but something about him seems familiar. I feel that he'll over come the dangers that lie ahead of him, but he won't be able to do so alone. I just hope the little one with him can hold out long enough until then." She turns to head back to the house, "Layla I'm afraid we'll have to move again, could you gathers the others?" Layla sighs, "You know we wouldn't have to do this if he never found this place, but Yagitha had to go about helping him. I swear she brings us nothing, but trouble."

"Oh stop complaining, you know Yagitha would have to move her shop as well." She fly's around angrily, "Yeah, but her place isn't as large as our place. It's so exhausting to move this place." Ellana sighs, "If you have the energy to complain, you have energy to work on moving our home. Just go tell the others so we can get started." She fly off still annoyed and Ellana continues on towards the house.

* * *

I just like to leave a quick message here for those who don't know, but I do leave occasional update of what going on with story progress or in my life. So please check in once in a great while, you don't have to read the profile, just scroll to the bottom of it. Well that's about it, hope to see you all again once chapter seven is completed.


	7. Chapter 7

I'm back!

I'm so sorry for the long delay in chapters, but with the six chapter I dropped on June 29 I had planned to give people (new or old) time to catch up. Though somethings came up and July was just a bad month so I didn't get much done. I'll post what happened at the end of the chapter.

* * *

You emerge back into the field you initially enter before finding yourself in the magic space of Ellana's home. Yawning, you noticing the sun starting to raise and start you trek back home. You makes a stop off in Bloomdon and hits up a coffee shop. It was one of those coffee chains and they have a french press you wanted to purchase, " _Wow, I can't believe how much extra they change for one. If it wasn't so early in the morning I would shop somewhere else, but I have no idea when my next chance available to get one will be."_

You grab a one pound bag of coffee and have the barista grind the beans for you. You purchase a cup of hot coffee along with your other items which they put in a little paper bag with handles. You add cream and sugar to your coffee(there's no way you're drinking coffee black). You sit outside and take a moment to drink your coffee. Seeing as running with a hot beverage would probably result in it going everywhere. It was good, but you still felt guilty about enjoying such things by yourself.

Throwing away your cup in a nearby trashcan you make sure you're out of sight before using swift-step to finish your trek back to Mt. Ebott. You're not sure how your going to explain the items you bought. You could just say it was something you bought when you got everyone else their gifts, but then you'd probably be asked why you never mentioned or used them til now. You decided that it might be better just to keep it somewhere out of sight until a moment presented itself.

No one was up yet and you make your way back to your room. You shove the bag with the items under your bed to the far back(hoping no one would find them). You remove your hoodie and backpack placing them next to the dresser. You approach Asriel's sleeping form and smile. " _Well seems he didn't stay up all night worrying about me that's good."_ You gently shake him to arouse him from his slumber. He stirs, slightly annoyed and grumbles something incoherent you couldn't make out. "Good morning to you to sleepy-head. I guess you rather oof-"

You're tackled to the floor by a now fully alert-excited Asriel giving you a hug, "Geez Azzy, you trying to injury me or something."

"As if Bro, you not that fragile and you know it. You don't even have any visible injuries or scars after the battle with the robot you fought back in the ruins. I don't as well thanks to your healing magic, but that's beside the point. So how did things go while you were out?"

"It wasn't completely a bust, but the news was a little more disheartening then I was hoping for. If I tell you anything it stay between us for now. I need to try and get mom and dad to allow me to make more trips to the surface. If they hear about this, I don't think they'd be mad per say, but more shocked & sadden about what I learned. There's apparently more remnants of the war left behind then just the barrier. If you still want to know I'll tell you, but once I do you might not like what you hear."

Asriel nods, "I want to know, I don't want to be left in the dark about it. You really should let mom and dad know about anything you found though." You let out a sigh, "I would, but you got to remember Azzy I wasn't even suppose to be up on the surface again. Not to mention I told them I didn't find anything on my initial trip to the surface. I know I'm probably digging a bigger hole for myself by keeping this a secret, but all it's going to do is cause them to worry."

You adjust yourself in a better sitting position on the floor, "Anyway at the moment we can't even keep anything from falling or being dumped into the underground. So things like those robots can still be a threat in the future, but considering the people who brought them here are the same ones to do this to me I highly doubt we'll see something like that again."

Asriel also moves to get more comfortable, "So your saying the people who changed you in the laboratory also made those robot, but why were they down here? Are they trying to get you back or did they find out that dropping you down here didn't have the desire effect they had planned for you."

"It's more of, "they're using Mt. Ebott as a dumping ground for their failed experiments." They know people will stay away due to the legends of Mt. Ebott, from rumors being spread of people going missing up here, but I have a feeling they maybe the ones spreading those rumors. If people really were going missing due to falling into the underground, mom, dad, or you shouldn't have been so surprised when I fell down here."

"That makes sense, I mean it could've been before I was born, but if other human did fall down here prior to you, then wouldn't they still have been around? Even if they passed away, mom and dad, among other monster would have know about something like that. I think their Soul would have also been study to find a why to break the barrier. Though I rather not have to think of someone Soul experimented on for such a purpose."

You nod and agree, "The problem is, that Dualality is using Mt. Ebott as a place to bring experiment that don't meet their expectation, but shouldn't there have been more before me?" Asriel sits there quiet for a moment before speaking up, "That's a good point, it falls along the same lines if a human fell down here, and what or who is Dualality?" Asriel asks. Realization hits you that you said the name of the Organization name that the scientist work for unintentionally. You take a deep breath and slowly go over a brief summery of Dualality, the mages you met, and the reason behind the war. Asriel looks a bit despondent about what you tell him. You move to be next to him and place an arm around him.

As you pull him gently against you; you ask, "You going to be okay Azzy? I know this is a lot to take in and looks rather bleak, but we'll need to keep our head held high and support each other. I'm going to find a way to help keep us all safe, but at the moment Dualality is a rather difficult goal to go up against. So for now safety should be our main goal and later find out Dualalities whereabouts. This is why I want to dispense information to mom and dad carefully, Okay."

Asriel give a nod, "I understand Bro, but golly I never knew there was more to the war then what's been told to me all these years. It just makes me wonder how much mom and dad truly know about the war. Humans having been around so long before monster and a city full of mages, it's had to image, but from what you've told me mages are few in numbers now a day. That even Dualality is grasping on to what little power they once held."

"That's the little advantage it seems we may have over them. The better question is, "how do we take advantage and exploit it in our favor?" Once we can figure that out we can make plans in stopping them from doing harm to more humans or monsters. We'll discuss this more at another time, it sounds like mom and dad are awake."

At that moment the door to the bedroom opened and Toriel entered. She was surprised to see you both up and sitting on the floor, "My children you're both up early. Have you both been awake very long?" You both shake your heads and Asriel speaks, "We've been up for about twenty minutes or so. Bro ended up waking me up." Toriel looks at you and notices that you look even more tired then you did yesterday, "My child, you look worst then you did yesterday. Is there something that kept you from getting sleep last night?"

She wasn't wrong, yesterday you only got about three hours of sleep after she brought you home. You figure over the last forty-eight hours you only got about eight hours of sleep total. Though the coffee you had has done wonders for you so far, but it was only a temporary fix. You're trying to think about what to say, but excuses weren't really coming to mind. She was looking at you waiting for an answer.

You just gave up and shrug, "I'm not sure what's going on myself. I got sleep and Gaster didn't find anything wrong with me yesterday. It might have something to do with the changes to my body. I know it's been two years since it's happen, but who knows what effects it could be having over the last year. Hopefully it's just a temporary issue and it'll straighten itself out in a few days."

You hope that sounded like a reasonable excuse, but she didn't seem completely satisfied with your answer, "Well after breakfast I think you should just take it easy and work on your studies today. I rather not have you doing anything to demanding and have you collapse again like yesterday. Once Asriel and I are done with magic practices I'll take you back to see Gaster. It's might be possible he missed something the other day."

"Okay mom, I've gotten a bit behind on my studies and could use this time to get caught up. I'm sure Gaster never gets tired of having a chance run more test on me." You give a light chuckle, "My child this isn't something to be taken lightly. I very concerned about your health and your lack of sleep as of late." You look down at the floor, "I know mom and I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to make light of the situations or anything. My lack of sleep isn't helping me think clearly."

She comes over, bends down, and gives you a hug, "It's alright my child. I understand you didn't mean anything about it. If you feel you need to grab a nap you may do so. Studies can always wait, taking care of yourself is more important to me." You return the hug, "Okay mom and I will if I need to. Though don't you have breakfast you need to get started?"

"I do, but I meant what I said. If you need me to come home early for-" You interrupt her with a chuckle, "Mom, I promise. If anything changes or I feel I need a nap I'll do so. I'm sure breakfast will help give me some energy to face the day. Plus you, dad, and Azzy need to get ready yourself." She looks at you with a hint of worry on her face, before she nods and heads out of the room slowly.

After about thirty minute Toriel has breakfast ready and everyone is at the table. She keeps glancing at you during breakfast from time to time and you swear even Asriel was doing the same. After you finished breakfast you excuse yourself from the table and make your way back to the bedroom. Shutting the door behind you and giving a sigh of relief, finally getting away from all the worrisome glances from Toriel at the table.

You head over to the desk in your room and take a seat. You grab a book from the top shelf. You open the page with a bookmarked location that has your name on it. You were half way through the work when you hear a knock on the door, "My child, we are heading out now. Is there anything you need before we leave?"

"I'm good mom, you both enjoy your day together."

"Alright my child, again don't be afraid to call if you need us to come back early."

"Okay, I love you. I'll see you later when you both get back."

"I love you too my child. We'll see you soon." And with that the house went silent. It only took you a couple of hours to catch up on all the work you missed out on. The work Toriel gave you at first was a struggle due to a lack of education, but thank to Toriel constant tutoring you caught on quick. Now it all seemed a bit to easy, but then again the lack of resources down in the underground didn't help. Sure the library books added some new lesson for the two weeks she had them, but now they were back at the library.

You could always look into purchasing new books for Toriel, you chuckle at this, " _To help mom and improve upon her lessons and cause Azzy to have the extra workload or keep things as is and know I can catch up when I get behind? I could always could give myself extra studies at the library when I'm allowed to make another trip to the surface."_ You knew Azzy is still struggling with some subject and you definitely didn't want to make things harder for him(yet).

With nothing else to do, you reach down and pull your backpack closer to you. Pulling out the book that belonged to Yagitha, you place it on the desk. Opening a side pouch, you pull out the monocle and place it over your eye. You open the book and start looking at what is written inside, most of the beginning of the book went over the war, Dualality and so forth. About the mid-point of the book is a section pertaining to a few simple spells. They weren't to difficult to cast and most of them are just simple utility spells, but you're sure you'd find some use for them.

What really intrigued you was the next few pages. It talked about beings made of pure magic, mages seem to referred to them as 'Spirits or fay', but they didn't have any physical form. The best they could manage to manifest in a physical form was a wisp of light, but even that seemed to be a tremendous amount of effort for them. Mages who did have connection with these fay learned most magic in the world came to be from them.

The fay acted as conduit for magic for those in the world. Mages and the magic they drew upon went through these conduits that the fay created, but monsters were different. The studies the mages done on monster never were a hundred percent certain about how the creation of them came to be. So many theories were thrown about through the years before the war. Mages believed either they were a combination of the hopes and dreams of humans imaginations given form through magic, but some believed that it was the fay creating bodies for themselves.

If anyone would know for sure it would be the fay, but those who have forged friendships with them either didn't know or were keeping it well guarded secret from those who might abuse such knowledge. If monsters were fay given new form then it would explain the magic they possess. Fey could never interact with the physical aspects of the world, but those who are sensitive enough to them would sense them more on a spiritual level.

That is why some mages believed why monster magic only affects the Soul and not the physical body. While magic gather by humans gained more physical nature when cast. Still the research was never was completed, " _But maybe that is for the best. Maybe no one should ever tamper with these elements, seeing how greed and want for power resulted in a war that devastated both sides." -Yagitha._

As you turn the page it seems that there's another entry made by Yagitha , " _An accident occurred today and years of work have been lost. The chance to finally be free from this dreaded place is gone. My apprentice was working on a spell I strictly told them over and over they were not ready for. I watched in horror as the backlash of the spell incinerated them, body and Soul. I cried so much for them, maybe it was my fault for pushing to hard. Thinking about being free from this curse for so long drove me to doom them._

 _"Now as I write this I realized I cared less about my selfishness. I cared about them more and enjoyed having their company. For so long I've been alone, but having them around for the last five years has been a breathe of fresh air. Though I think they knew how much I cared. Which resulted in them rushing things. Not so much due to impatience's, but the selflessness to help me despite the risk. Why did they have to be so damn kind, I was always so strict on them the surface, but they could always see through me._

 _"The happiness they had on their face and the joy they felt when they succeeded on the task I gave them. I'm not sure how I'm going to go back to that loneliness, maybe I could set-up a shop and I might... no, I won't take another apprentice not after this. It just wouldn't be the same and I'm afraid to have such an outcome happen again. If anyone finds this, do not get carried away with magic. It can turn on you if you're not careful. Even us who master such have made terrible mistakes and this is one of mine." -Yagitha_

The entry ends and you felt horrible reading this, like you invaded someone privacy, but she gave you the book probably knowing full well that you would eventually read this. It explained the loneliness you saw on both Yagitha and Ellana's face.

" _I really should go see them both. I could really see the happiness on their faces when I was visiting them. The company, even if short, must have been so nice. Damn it, this whole secrecy crap that I'm holding on to is tearing me up inside. I want to go to the surface and see them right now after reading this. Then maybe Ellana could help me get in touch with Yagitha and we could all enjoy each others company. I'm not sure how that will work if they can't leave there so call,"Prisons."_

Giving out a exasperated sigh, you push back your chair and stand up from the desk, " _If I don't do something to take my mind off all this I'm going to do something I may end up regretting later."_

You take a walk around the castle not really paying attention where you're going until you find yourself in front of that glowing grayish field that makes up the barrier, " _Really? The one place I was trying to avoid and my subconscious leads me here anyway."_

You sigh to yourself, " _Well I'm here now and I really could use some fresh air."_ You walk outside the barrier and look over the scenery before you. It was a great view of everything and you focus your sight in the general direction Ellana and Yagitha are in, " _Why am I torching myself like this? I know I can't just run off and see them. Hell I don't even know how to access Yagitha shop since a solid wall took its place of her shop. I shouldn't even be out here period. I need to talk to mom and dad tonight about these limitations on leaving the underground, badly."_

You sit down to enjoy the view and forget about everything for an hour before having to head back in. You get back home and of course Toriel and Asriel are back. You just wave to them briefly as you head back to your room. You weren't much in the mood for conversation at the moment. As you got to the doorway of the bedroom you hear soft footfalls from behind you coming down the hallway. You knew them all to well and look back as you see Asriel coming to a stop in the hall.

"Bro, you okay? You looked a little depressed when you come in. Is there anything you want to talk about?" You continue into the room and it was only a moment before Asriel came to stand in the doorway. He stood there unsure on how to proceed and watches as you walk to the side of your bed. As you make your way over to the bed you notice the bag with the forgotten gifts for Asgore, " _I forgot to give him his gifts, I'll have to make sure to give them to him tonight."_ You crawl up on to the bed and under the covers.

Asriel slowly walks over to your bedside and you knew he wasn't going to leave your side until you say something to him. With a sigh, you turn over slowly to face him and he has a pained look on his face. " _Great, now Azzy probably thinks I'm being mean because I'm ignoring him. That... Damn it, I hate seeing him like this."_ You reach out a hand and run it down the length of his right ear. He reaches up and takes your hand in his as you reach the bottom of his ear.

"Azzy, I'm sorry. I'm not ignoring you or anything. I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings by making it seem like I was. I'm just a bit depressed about something, but I really don't want to talk about it right now. I want to get a nap in before dinner, but if you could wake me up beforehand then I'd appreciate it. I also appreciate how your always there for me when I know I need it."

You give him a weak smile and he returns it. "Always and I'll make sure to wake you up before dinner. Just get some sleep, you really look as though you can use it. I was just worried about you and when you didn't say anything it made me feel uneasy. I know you're dealing with a lot and your trying to handle it yourself, but you really should ask mom or dad for help. I'm glad your able to tell me some of what's going on, but I'm at a loss about how to handle any of this."

"I know Azzy, I plan on talking to mom and dad about the whole surface limitations later tonight, but I really need to get some rest so I can think clearly on how to approach the topic without making it worst."

"You should just tell them you found a lead on the barrier, you can leave out the Dualality & mage part for now, but if they know you made progress they might allow you to take more trips. You can just abridge the last couple of days into a single day. Then as you gather more information you can tell them what you feel comfortable with." You free your hand from the light grasp he's has on it and you ruffle his head fur.

"That's actually not a bad way to approach the situation. Though you shouldn't be helping me in devising more ways to keep secrets, that should be my burden alone. I don't want you getting in trouble for any of this for my sake." Asriel just shakes his head, "I want to help, isn't that what family is for." You give a tired chuckle, "Yeah, I'm still adjusting to the whole family routine. It's only been a year since I've had anyone who actually really cared and loved me as a person and not an object to be used."

You give another yawn and Asriel just giggles, "Well I guess I've kept you from sleep long enough, night Bro." As he turns to leave he felt a hand grip his arm, as he looks back he sees you grabbing onto his arm, "Thanks Azzy, your advice really help straighten out a lot of the issue I was dealing with today. Keeping everything bottle up is hard to do. I love you, Azzy."

"Love you too, Bro. Now get some sleep already." You release your grip on his arm and he give you one final, "sleep tight" as he shuts the door behind him. You roll over and you let your eyes close, letting some much overdue sleep take you." Unfortunately your sleep is not a restful one as disturbing images plague your dreams and your parents stand in front of you. Their gaze looking through you as they begin hitting you and verbally saying familiar vile things about you.

As you do your best to protect yourself from their attacks, you notice the slits that are home to your claws on your hands. You lash out without a second thought at them and what you see next haunts you as your eyes go wide and face pale. The people in front of you were no longer those of your abusive parents, but that of Toriel and Asgore.

A horrid look of shock on their face in reaction to what you've done. Claw marks cut deep in their chest as you reach out for them and apologize, but as you do so they turn to dust. You bolt straight up, hand gripping your chest, your lungs gasping for air as your heart is racing. The image still fresh in your mind, sweat soaking the front of your shirt and beads of sweat running down your face. You knew that you weren't going to be able to get back to sleep after such a terrifying nightmare.

You slowly draw back the cover and swing your legs over the side of the bed. You rest your hands over your face and focus on taking deep breathes to calm down, " _Ugh, why did I have such a dream? I haven't had many nightmares in the last six months. Is it a side effect of being sleep deprived the last couple of days or am I feeling the guilt of my actions catching up to me?"_ Of course, not having anyone there to comfort you after such a dream, you stand up, and head for the door.

You enter the bathroom as you draw a bath. Another luxury you haven't had the courtesy of doing the last couple of days. You're surprised Toriel didn't say anything about it, but knowing you've been excessively tired may have over-ridden any complaints she would've brought up. Regardless of the reason, it was certainly helping in calming you down, the lingering images of the dream fading away somewhat.

" _Maybe I'll ask Azzy if I can sleep with him tonight. I hate to be a bother like this to him, but having him sleep with me always kept the nightmares away in the past. It's funny how something as a nightmares scares me more then fighting robots and creatures created in a lab. Guess it's easier to deal with something that has form then those that don't. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to talk to mom and dad tonight after all."_

You sigh, get out and reach for the plug to let the water out. You grab a towel nearby and wrap it around your waist. Heading into the bedroom you see Asriel sitting on his bed and gives you a warm smile as you enter. "Hey Bro, I head the water from the bathroom running earlier so I figure you must be up. Did you need any help brushing your fur?" A smile creeps on to your face as you let out a light chuckle, "Sure Azzy, I wasn't going to worry about it, but since your already here and offering I might as well."

You take a seat on the bed and turn so your back is facing him. He already had a brush in hand and gets to work. He seems to be doing better then in the past and brushing you at a casual pace. It felt nice and further helped melt any tension away from earlier. You both really didn't say anything, but knew that it wasn't necessary. The comfort of each other company being enough. Though Azzy finally came to a stop and you knew he finished.

You get up and grab some clothes from the dresser and Azzy turned his head as you got dressed. If you were looking at him you'd notice a slight blush on his face. As you finished you turn back to him, "So how long was I out?"

"Only a few hours, still about an hour before dinner. Did you want to do anything while we wait?" You put a finger to your chin as you think about what to do. After a moment you just say the first thing that comes to mind, "Want to play some video games?" He leaps to his feet in excitement, "Yeah, we haven't really had much time to have fun lately with everything that's been going on." You both head to the living room and turn everything on.

An hour goes by in a blink of an eye as Toriel calls out, "Dinner ready my children."

You both pause the game and head for the table, but Toriel asks Asriel to go wash up(you already having a bath earlier). You watch as he heads down the hall and are now alone with Toriel. She sits down directly across from you at the table. "My child, how are you feeling? I see you went out earlier today, but you looked a bit unhappy when you came in. Did you want to talk about it?" Well you knew she'd ask you sooner or later, it just turned out to be sooner then you wanted.

"I'm feeling better, still could use more sleep, but I'm fine for now. As for me going out I rather wait and talk to you and dad alone. I've some matters I like to discuss, but dinner isn't the time I want to discuss them. Also I rather if Azzy wasn't involved in what I need to tell you both." She give a nod, "I understand my child, would you like to talk with us after Asriel is in bed tonight."

"I guess that... actually I think I rather hold off til morning, maybe Azzy can go out and play while we talk things over. Tomorrow is our break from our schooling, so if that works for both of you. Do you think dad can spare some time tomorrow?" She giggles, "I'm sure Gorey can make time. This seems important to you. Though for now let's just enjoy the evening." You nod in agreement and Asriel just made his way back when you both finished talking.

Dinner was great and you both continued where you left off on your game. As it got late, Asgore came in from his day. Asriel goes over and gives him a hug. You pause the game and do the same, "How have you both been?" You both reply, "Good." and he just smiles with a nod. You remembered the gifts in the bedroom and run off to get them. As you come back you hand him the bag, "What is this, my child?" He looks into the bag and pulls out the tea and watering can.

"Oh, this is great. My old watering can was becoming unusable. Also I can't wait to sample the different flavor of teas, would you both like to join me in a cup?" You both nod and he make his way to the kitchen, Toriel following behind him. You have a feeling she was going to tell him about tomorrow, but Asriel is already back in front of the TV. You rejoin him and let the matter drop for now. You'll tell Azzy about it tonight before bed, but all you wanted to do at the moment is be a kid.

You're both brought a cup of tea, which got cold from due to focusing more on the game. You both take a break and heat the tea back up with magic. You got yours a little to hot, not use to using magic in such fashion. It was great, the honey ginger tea you received and Azzy enjoying cinnamon spice he got. It was a nice change of pace from what you normally had available down here, but you'll always enjoy the golden flower tea Asgore makes.

Toriel tells you both to start getting ready for bed after you finish your tea, Asriel heads to the bathroom and you head to the bedroom. You get changed into your pajamas and look through one of your books while you waited for Azzy to be finish with his bath. You went over a spell you've yet to read and as you attempted to cast it nothing happened. You go back over and are sure you pronounced the wording correctly. You tried again, but nothing happened again.

You shrugged and decided you'll look it over later. You hear the bathroom door open and you put the book away back into your backpack. Asriel walks in looking like he really need a hand with his fur. You're glad you only had areas of fur and weren't completely covered in it, but you chuckle lightly at his struggle as the brush got stuck in his fur. His fur has grown a bit long and he definitely was in need of a trim soon. You walk over to help him and with a claw helped free the imprisoned brush from his fur.

"You know Azzy I think you need mom to trim your fur again. It's been a while since the last time. I could help with that, but I don't think I'd do a very good job. I can however help you get your fur sorted out until tomorrow." You being working on the tough areas of his fur with the brush. Cutting away any area that are too tangled with a claw as you brushed.

"Yeah, I keep forgetting to ask and mom with being busy teaching, but she'll be free tomorrow so I'll ask her in the morning."

You look down, remind by his word what you had planned in the morning, "About tomorrow Azzy, I talked to mom briefly when you went to get washed up before dinner. I told her I wanted to talk to both of them in the morning, but wanted to exclude you from discussion. Not because I want to keep anything from you, but because you already know what I plan on talking to them about. I'll let you know what they decide once we're done, but if you can wait outside for me til I'm done. I'll try not to take to long."

"Oh, I was wondering when you planned to talk to them. I thought you were going to do so tonight, but that's fine. I can always go to one of my favorite bug hunting spots and then we can meet up once your done." You let out a sigh of relief, " Thanks Azzy, I just wanted to let you know in advance so you didn't think I was keeping you out of anything. I figured you didn't want to hear me repeat everything since you knew. Also mom and dad seeing you not being surprised by any of the news might alert them that you know something and then they might try to get information from you."

"Well I could probably fake it, but I rather not risk putting on a poor act. I don't want to be the one to make things harder for you. You already do a good enough job of that on your own." he chuckles and you glare at him. "Thanks for the support Azzy, you really know how to cheer me up." You couldn't help, but let a chuckle out yourself. You finally manage to get most of his fur sorted out so it won't tangle to badly while he sleeps.

"Hey Azzy, I was wondering if it's okay if I slept with you tonight. I had an eerie dream earlier today and I don't think I'll be able to sleep well tonight because of it." He wraps his arms around you, "Sure Bro, though I didn't take you for a scaredy-cat." You smirk and his laughing, "Ha ha, well next time you have trouble sleeping I'll remember that." Toriel comes in a few minutes later to see you both sound asleep and snuggled up together. Seeing how adorable the two of you are, she pulls out her phone and takes a picture.

Smiling, she put her phone away, and move over to give both of you a quick kiss on your foreheads. She turn off the light and closes the door on her way out. As adorable as it is seeing you both together like that, she was concerned since you both haven't done so for a while now. She begins to wonder if you're having nightmares again. She'd have to ask in the morning, but for now it seemed like you were sleeping peacefully.

She heads back out to the room, taking a seat in her chair as Asgore comes in with a cup of tea in his hand. "So how is Broderick doing? Was he able to get to sleep?" Toriel nods as she looks at him, "It seem like he is, but I'm concerned seeing him sleeping with Asriel. It's been so long since he's done so. I hope something hasn't caused a relapse in his nightmares." Asgore move to the couch and takes a seat himself.

"Hmm, that sounds worrisome indeed. Let's hope that it's a one time occurrence. We'll check up on them one last time before we head to bed ourselves. I wonder if his lack of sleep is a result of what he wants to talk to us about tomorrow."

"It's possible, but I don't want to speculate about if that's the reason or not. We'll find out in the morning, for now I'd like to get in some reading before then." Asgore takes a sip of his tea as Toriel picks up a book, "You're right, speculation never amounts to anything that ends well. I shall leave you to your book and tend to my flower garden for a bit." He finishes his tea and takes the cup to the kitchen.

About an hour goes by before Asgore makes his way back home, as he walks in he see Toriel returning the book she was reading to the table and stands up. "I'm back, I take it you're done reading for the night?" She nods, "I am, we should check on the children like we said we would and then get some sleep ourselves." They peek in and your both still sound asleep. They close the door quietly and turn off the hall lights as they head to their bedroom.

They get change for bed and crawl under the covers. They nozzle their noses affectingly as they gaze into each others eyes, "Good-night Tori my love, sleep well."

"You too, my big-ole fuzzybuns." They both chuckle and snuggle together as they drift off to sleep.

* * *

So June 26 I had some filling replaced, but after a week of pain I called my dentist. He wasn't available after the forth of July so I was referred to another dental location to be checked out. Apparently bacteria got into the wisdom tooth(yes I still have all my wisdom teeth) which killed the nerve. That was what was causing the severe, so the other dentistry could only give me Painkiller and Antibiotics until I could get in with my dentist again. I got in the next day, but I was going on 24 hours of no sleep. The tooth was extracted and since then I've been pain free. Also on the forth of July I ended up tripping and falling, that didn't help at all.

Then over the course of a week(after the tooth was pulled) I've been recovering from the fall. There was no pain from the tooth being pulled, I was shocked, I always hear about the pain afterwards from such. Then I had a doctor appointment to go run on a treadmill(fun). I was finally getting back on track when I went into the ER and found I needed surgery. Nothing life threatening or anything, but that put me down until just recently. So I got hit by a truck called, "Life" and have just been trying to rest up and recover from this month of events.

The worst part is chapter seven was almost ready to go when this all happened and I didn't make any of the progress I was hoping for on future chapters. Also I'm sorry if the ending seems a little rushed, but I just didn't like how it was sound before this change. So to get thing moving I changed a lot of the dialog I was thinking of having between Asgore and Toriel. It just sounded after rereading it out of character (more so then normal for me). Anyway, it may take a bit to start picking up the pieces for upcoming chapters, but maybe I'll have something in a month. I just don't want to make a set schedule after all this happened.

Anyway I hope everyone enjoys and I hope to be back when i can.

Added- 8/21/2016 - Just for as a reminder, I place update from time to time on my profile. So if you wondering about update in what is going on with any future chapters, please check there.


	8. Chapter 8

Greeting everyone,

I'm sorry for the lack in update, but I've been busy dealing with a lot of other stuff. Anyway I'll note what happened down at end of the chapter.

* * *

Morning came around as you slowly open your eyes, what you see in front of you is a snout belonging to Asriel and his arm draped over you. " _Hmm, I'm having a strange sense of_ _déjà vu. Azzy drooling slightly, check, arm over me, check, sleeping in the same bed, check. Well guess I slept well enough, now to try and wiggle free of Azzy's grasp_." You gently lift his arm being careful not to wake him. Moving it very slightly and placing it down on the bed as you slowly make your way out of bed.

You make your way over to the door and enter the hallway. Closing the door softly behind you; you make your way down the hall to the living room. Your ears perk up hearing sounds of someone in the kitchen. You make your way toward the kitchen with a silent approach in your step. Looking in you see a tired, bed-furred, Toriel grabbing items from the fridge. You make your way behind her, "Morning mom." Startled by your sudden announcement, the items she grabbed fumbling around in her grasp, but she mange to steady everything before it could tumble to the floor.

She turns to face you, her face looking a little pale from the scare, "My child, you startled me. I didn't think anyone would be up yet, especially you, considering how tired you've been." You chuckle slightly, "Sorry about that, but I feel much better after getting some much needed rest. So are you making breakfast?"

"Yes my child. Is there anything you would like me to make for you?" You think for only a moment, "Pancakes would be great, I'm sure Azzy would agree with me if he was up." She nods, "Well it shouldn't take me too long to make some, would you like to go wake Gorey and Asriel?"

"Actually, I like to take care of something quickly before breakfast. Also knowing we'll be having a discussion about certain topics afterwards, I'd like to sure I have everything sorted out beforehand." She nods, "Of course my child, but don't be to long." You nod back and head back to the room. " _Man I really could use a cup of coffee, but I'm not quite ready to let mom ask questions about the items I purchased on my last secret venture to the surface."_ Grabbing the items from under the bed and grabbing your shoes, you make your way to the front door.

Quietly exiting the house and making sure Toriel doesn't see you leaving. You sit on the steps and put on your shoes and proceed towards Hotlands. It didn't take long to reach Gaster's Laboratory. Upon entering the lab you don't see anyone at first, but you assume it's either way to earlier and everyone is still asleep or they're in the lab. You make your way to the laboratory door and crack it open. Looking in you assumption is correct, Gaster is awake and is currently working on something, but you see Sans head down sleeping at his table.

" _Well if there's anyone here who would appreciate a cup of coffee its those two."_ You make your way to their kitchen setting you items on the counter-top and find a kettle to boil some water. Of course there's no clean mugs and clean three out placing them on the counter as well. While waiting for the water to boil you pull out the french press and get it ready. After a few minutes the water is ready and you add it to the coffee grounds in the press. After letting it steep for a few more minutes you press down on the filter to push the grounds down.

Taking the press over to the mugs you pour out the contents evenly to each one. You grab the bag you brought with you and pull out some creamer cups, pouring three with some sugar in yours. Finding a tray in the kitchen you place all the mug on it. You leave the other cups black since you don't know how they prefer coffee, but bring cream and sugar just in-case. You enter and Gaster turns to face you, "Ah, if it isn't my favorite human. What brings you by so early in the morning?"

"Well I thought the three of us could enjoy something I brought back from the surface. I made us all some coffee." Gaster looks at the cups and then back at you, "I'm not a big fan of coffee, it always has a odd taste to it." You chuckle, "You mean the stuff in the kitchen Sans makes. One, that's instant and second it's past it's expiration date. Basically it's gone bad, but I'm assuming monster can't get ill off something like that like humans can. This is fresh and will taste much different."

You walk closer and he looks down at the black liquid, "Oh, I didn't know if you prefer it black or with cream and sugar. I got-" Before you can finish Gaster takes a sip, you wait with anticipation if he'll like it or not. He sets it down on the table next to him, "You're correct about it tasting different, I find this much more flavorful then the instant coffee." A smile creeps on your face, "I'm glad, if it's alright with you could I leave the coffee and french press with you and Sans."

With a raised brow(which is still odd to see a skeleton do) he stare at you with a questionable expression, "May I ask why? It seems like a hassle to have to come here anytime you wish to make some." You let out a sigh, but before you respond to his question you set the cup for Sans next to him and take your own. Sans stir and glance at the cup next to him. "What's this?" you tell him coffee and he takes the cup in hand. Sans takes a sip and he stares at it like something wrong.

"You sure kid? This doesn't taste like the same stuff I make." You chuckle, "Well duh, your using instant expired coffee. I brought fresh coffee that I got from the surface." He takes another sip, "Damn, you're spoiling me here kid. I'm never going to be able to go back." You both chuckle, but you notice Gaster is sitting patiently still waiting for an explanation. You take a quick sip of you own coffee as you grab a nearby stool and set the tray down on a nearby table.

"Well to answer your question why I'd like to leave the stuff here is, because I shouldn't really have them in the first place. You both know that I can pass through the barrier and head to the surface." Gaster raises a hand, "I think I see where your going with this. You made an unauthorized visit out of Mt. Ebott and acquire these items during that trip." You nod and staring down at the floor, "Yeah, if you could keep this between us for now I'd appreciate it. The only other person knows is Azzy. If mo... I mean Toriel and Asgore found out it might complicated matters."

Sans looks a little puzzled, "What's with all the secrecy kid? Wouldn't it be better to let them both in on the details?" You shake your head, "At the moment, no, I'm working on trying to allow me to go on another trip up to the surface, but the information I've discovered so far might have the opposite effect." Both Gaster and Sans look at each other before nodding, "Well kid, it's not our place to really judge you and tell you what to do, but just make sure this doesn't end up getting you into trouble."

"Agreed, but knowing you might have future visits to the surface, maybe it would be possible to acquire some items for the lab. I would be happy to compensate you for the trouble of course." as Gaster takes another sip of his coffee.

"Sure, I'll stop by before the next time I head out. I do have some gold left that Toriel and Asgore gave me, but I'm not sure how much the items you need are going to cost. Also it has to be in it's raw form, monster coins would bring on to many question when I exchange them for currency on the surface."

"I'm sure I can acquire the gold with little issue. Though carrying everything back may be difficult and require you to make multiple trips, but we can figure out such details later." You realize that it's been about twenty minutes since you left and you quickly finish your coffee. "I really got to go, I didn't really tell Toriel this morning I would be-"

Sans chuckles, "Well don't let us stop you or the coffee isn't going to be the only thing roasted." You give a chuckle, "True, I'm sure I'm going to be grilled as is." With that you make haste with a quick, "good-bye and thank you" upon exiting the lab. When you arrive back home, you enter to see Toriel standing in the hall talking with Asriel and Asgore, " _Crap, well so much for getting back unnoticed."_ You get that glare from Toriel and look at the floor.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you I was going out this morning, but I did say I need to take care of something quickly. It just took me-" Toriel sighs, "Well talk about this later, for now breakfast is ready. Get washed up and come to the table." You knew saying anymore wouldn't help so you just did what you were told. Asriel joins you and in a low voice asks, "Where did you go this morning Bro?" In the same tone, "I went to Hotlands, I talked with Gaster and Sans a bit. I bought some equipment when I was on the surface to make coffee."

Asriel face has a look of disgust on it, "Bro, how can you drink that stuff? I tried it one, it taste really bitter and nasty." You chuckle, "Where did you try it? Also did you drink it black, it helps to add cream and sugar if you can't handle it black." He just blinks, but then answers, "Sans gave me-" he's interrupted by your laughter, "Ha ha, no wonder you didn't like it. Azzy that stuff Sans has isn't fresh anymore and it's instant coffee. The stuff I got is really good, but even with cream and sugar it's an acquired taste."

"I'll take your word for it Bro, I think I'll stick with tea though."

"Fair enough, I'm not going to force you drink something you might not like, but you should give it another shot."

"I'll think about it, but we should get to the table before mom gets curious what's taking us so long."

"True, I think I pushed my luck as is this morning and I still got to talk to them after breakfast."

You both get to the table and nothing was really said for the duration. Asriel is the first to finished and excuses himself from the table. He takes his plate to the kitchen and as he passes he gives you a glance. You just nod and he seems to understand. Toriel and Asgore notice, but don't bring it up.

After Asriel leave the house Toriel speaks up, "So my child, where did you go this morning? I'm sure you had your reason behind it, but you really should let us know."

"I know mom, I went to Hotlands to see Gaster and Sans this morning." She looks more concerned now, " Are you still not feeling well my child? That's quite a trip to take, how did you get there and back so quickly?" Beads of sweat form on your forehead, " _Shit, I never did bring up my other ability. We'll guess now is a good of a time as any."_ Toriel is waiting for you to say something and Asgore take a quick sip of his tea.

"Uh, well... There's another ability I have which I named, "Swift-Step". It basically amplifies my speed and how I was able to get to locations on the surface quickly. Otherwise, there's no way I could get back to Mt. Ebott in the amount of time I had. As for my health concerns I'm fine."

She looks at you surprised by this, "Why didn't you tell us before, you could've brought it up when you told us about your magic or when we learned of your healing ability. Though learning about the way I did for the first time wasn't exactly the way I wanted too."

"I just never got around to it, my healing ability and speed feel more natural so I sometimes forget that to others they're not normal, but you're the first I've told this ability too." She smiles a little, "Well it's nice to know about something beforehand. Now if you can work on that a little more." You sigh, "I know, I don't mean anything by it. I've always kept to myself and done what is asked of me, but you both given me a choice and I'm not use to having that still. I end up falling back into bad habit of keeping things to myself."

"It's okay my child, we know you've gone through some terrible experiences. We still don't know the full detail of your past, but what you have shared we can image it wasn't easy." You nod, "I'd like to tell you more, but I'd prefer if I could leave it behind." Asgore places a hand on your shoulder, "We'll be here if you ever feel up to telling us, but we'll not force you if that would make you uncomfortable."

You give Asgore a nod in appreciation, "Well, I think we gotten off topic a little bit. I really wanted to bring up the subject of the barrier. What I told you before wasn't truthful."

Asgore retracts his hand, "We had a feeling, but we weren't a hundred percent sure that's what you wanted to talk to us about. Another reason we assumed you wanted to talk to us is about being able to go back up to the surface." Your kind of at a loss for a moment, but considering how long they've both been around they probable can tell if someone is hiding something. "Well your right on both accounts, this is as much about the barrier as it is me asking about further visits to the surface.

"The information I found out about the barrier is that it's working perfectly." They both look at each other with a look of disbelief, "Are you sure my child? How did you learn of this?" You had to think about how to phrase what to tell them, they both will probably know that you're not being entirely truthful, but you weren't ready to touch upon the mages you met yet. "I came across an old book, it only had a few pages left in it. It basically touched upon the war and information about the barrier. From what I read it was placed hastily by the mages and it will only keep those within Mt. Ebott from leaving, but it doesn't keep things from entering."

Toriel leans back in her chair looking a little crestfallen, Asgore looking much the same, but accepting the news a little better. "This is troubling news, but now that explains how you and those robot came to be in the ruins. Now we must find out if there's a way to change it to keep possible threats out. Which now mean allowing you to make another trip to the surface. Tori my dear, are you willing to let our child go? If not, I understand." You and Asgore now sit patiently waiting for Toriel's response.

Toriel sits quietly, knowing you both are waiting on her answer about the matter at hand. She takes in a breathe and begins to speak, "I knew you'd have to eventually make another trip, but I never knew it be so soon. Also you've been so worn out as of late and I really want to make sure your-" You chime in, "I've myself to blame for my lack of sleep. I stayed up late those couple of days and neglected getting a proper night sleep, but I talked with Azzy which helped put my worries at ease. I'm sorry to have caused you concern, but I really am fine now."

"You really shouldn't keep yourself up like that, I was concerned you were ill or worst. Though I'm glad Asriel was able to help, but you should've talked to us. I feel that there's more behind it then just staying up late, but for now knowing you're okay is enough. Just promise not to push yourself like that from now on. As for allowing you to go back up to the surface I shall let you, but I want you back her every night, understood?"

You're shocked that she's agreeing to let you go. You make your way from your chair over to her and give her a hug, "Thanks mom, I promise I'll be back every-night and I'll do what I can to find information to help us. Though I was sort of expecting you to not allow me to go." She giggles, "I was thinking about it, but you did tell us about your other ability and about the barrier. So I call that progress, we'll work on the rest over time, now unless there's more you'd like to tell us why don't you go catch up with Asriel."

You only nod and give her a final hug before running out to join Asriel. "Well that went better then I expected. I equally surprised you agreed so quickly, I thought you'd make it far more challenging for us."

"Well if you'd like I could call him back and we can do it over." Asgore just chuckles, "I think we're fine with the outcome as is. So we have our own matters to attend to this morning, shall we get ready?" Toriel gathers the remaining plates at the table, "Of course, let me just deal with the dishes and I'll get changed." Asgore gets up and kisses her on the cheek, "I'll give you a hand drying them."

* * *

Upon leaving the house you see Asriel working on his magic, you wave at him to get his attention and he makes his way over to you, "So how did it go Bro?" You sigh, "I'd say good, but I still feel guilty about not being completely forth coming with them. Though I need to work on being careful my action, I forgot to consider how far Hotlands is, under normal circumstances it would take a while to get there and back."

"I was thinking about that myself, how did you get back so quickly?" You chuckle, "Well remember that time you fell off that bridge?" Asriel nods, "Well I have another ability that allows me to increase my speed. I tried using it, but my healing ability at the time over-exerted me. So the little bit of magic required to use it was unavailable."

"Wait, your saying you can run quicker then I've normally seen you have, how fast can you move?"

"Would you like to see first hand?" Asriel eye's goes wide with excitement, "Yeah, how are you going to show?" You turn so your back is facing him and place your arms slightly behind you, "Hop on, I'll carry you to where-ever you like to go." With some help from you, he manages to get a good grip on you, "Make sure you have a really good grip Azzy. Where would you like to go?"

"Let's go to Snowdin that pretty far off." You nod and before Asriel could react he was looking at the Christmas tree in the center of Snowdin. You let Asriel down, "So what do you-" The look of awe on Asriel face is priceless, "Bro... THAT WAS AWESOME! Why haven't you told me you could do that?"

"Well to be fair, mom and dad just found out about it today as well. It never came up in conversation and I forgot I never brought it up til now." Asriel gives you a light jab in the shoulder, "That would explain that time you ran out of the house after you attacked me. I chased after you, but when I looked outside you were nowhere to be found. Along with the recent times you snuck out of the room to go to the surface and got back before anyone knew. Though seeing upfront was so amazing, even though I really didn't see anything along the way."

Hearing about that past when you attack Asriel brought down your mood. You knew it wasn't your fault and you manage to regain control before anything bad could happen. Asriel took notice, "Oh, Bro I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring up bad memories-" You just shake your head, "Don't worry about it Azzy. Yeah, I did use my Swift-Step at that time, but I also used it to carry you home from the ruins."

"So basically you've been using it this whole time, but I always missed out." You give him a half-smile, "Yeah, but hey now you know. I'll be using it a lot when I make my upcoming trips to the surface."

"Oh, I guess we got a little side-tracked on topics. So mom and dad agreed to let you go?" You nod, "Yeah, but I only told them about the barrier and this. I'm wasn't ready to tell them about the mages I met, but I did bring them up as far as the war goes. Told them I found a book that I learned about the barrier from. It's not a completely lie, a book I have does talk about it, but I learned about it from Ellana first."

"I not sure what more I can say Bro, they accepted everything so far. You should just tell them the rest."

You sigh, "Not yet Azzy, I want to see Ellana before I make that decision. At least if they decide to not let me go again I got to see her one last time."

"Yet no one could really stop you from going. You're respecting mom and dad decision and keeping yourself from do so. I'm happy that you keep that temptation in check and not abusing it, well, at least all the time."

"That's true I guess, there are days though I felt like doing so, but I chose against doing so. So what do you want to do now?" The cold slightly getting to both of you, "How about we leave Snowdin for starters, we can make our way to Waterfall."

"Sure, want to walk or do you want another piggy back ride?" Asriel thinks for a moment, "Let's walk, I don't get to enjoy the scenery along the way even if I've seen it all before." You just chuckle, "Yeah, it's different from my point of view, it's like everything else slows down around me. So I still saw everything, but I guess all you seen was the moment we arrived."

"That must be nice, I wish I could move that quickly. It would make running errands... Hey wait, you tricked me in doing errands for you when you could do it so much faster. BRO THAT'S MEAN!" You just stick out your tongue, "What'cha going to do about it Azzy?" By now people are staring at the both of you, but you both didn't care. Asriel launches some fireballs at you, but you easily dodge, "You're going have to try harder then that."

"You're cheating, you can move quicker then I could even hope to match."

"Aw, well if you want a handicap you just need to say so." You hold perfectly still and he lobs more fireballs in your direction. You the summon your own fireballs to intercept his, "See, I don't need to dodge. I can just-" Someone shouts at the both of you, "Hey, you're both causing a commotion! If you want to practice magic don't do it in town." You both see an angry bunny monster in a door-way.

The bunny monster from the Inn makes her way over, "Oh, Prince Asriel, I didn't realize it was you. I didn't mean to raise my voice, I wasn't sure who was making all the ruckus out here, but you shouldn't be using magic in town like that. Your going to set a bad example of how the Royal family should act." You see Asriel gaze fall, "I'm s-sorry." This doesn't sit well with you, "Listen, we may have gotten a little carried away, but doesn't mean you can speak to Azzy like that. Royalty or not he should be able to have fun like any other kid."

You grab Asriel by the hand, "We'll leave since apparently we're not welcome here." You both start walking and you could hear the bunny monster saying something, but you end up ignoring her. Asriel has been quiet all the way to Waterfall, you stop and look back at him, "You okay Azzy?" His mood still gloomy from earlier. So you decide to do something you knew that would snap him out of his rut. You move in front of him and lift his head with your hands, he was about to say something, but then you kiss him on his snootle.

A blush appears on his face as he begins flailing about as he topples backwards landing on his butt. You stand there laughing a bit. Asriel still flustered about what you did, "W-what w-was that for Bro?"

"You seemed a bit down, thought I do something to cheer you up. Seems like it worked somewhat, do you want to talk about it?" You move to sit next to him. He shuffles a bit in place and brings his legs up to his chest. He rest his arms on his knees and rest his chin on his arms, "Not much to talk about, it's been like this before you fell down here. I never had any real friends, just those who pretended since I was the prince and it was always lonely.

"It's why I was happy the day you came to be down here. You never treated me like that, you treated me like how a friend should and then you became family. I wasn't alone anymore, which is why when you left that time through the barrier I was so worried. I didn't want to be alone again, I needed to find you no matter-" He's cut short as you pull him close to you, "Don't worry Azzy, no matter what happens I'll find my way back. Even if I die I swear I'll find a way to come back to you."

Tears are rolling down Asriel's face and you wipe them with you sleeve, "We've got to work on our emotion one of these days Azzy. We're both kind of a mess." both of you give a light chuckle.

"Sorry Bro, I'm just happy to hear you say that, but do me a favor and don't die on me. I don't think I handle something like could that even if your did come back from the dead." You both slowly smile then it turns into laughter. "Well I don't think you have to worry about that to much, I've been close to death so many times." This got Asriel attention, "What do you mean Bro?" You face palm, "Looks like I said more then I meant to again.

"Listen Azzy, When I was in that lab I fought so many terrifying things. Each one I fought I thought, "This is it, I'm going to die today", but I always manage to come out alive. A fraction of these memories are the cause of my the nightmares I have, but I say most of my life before I ended up down here has been one big nightmare."

Asriel is looking at you horrified, "Bro, that must have been awful. Having to fight to stay alive, did that go on all the time before you were brought here?"

"Mostly, if they weren't having me battle for my life they'd have me hooked up to equipment, taking reading and then I would be returned to my cell." Asriel looks as though he was going to cry again, but you just shake him a little, "Listen Azzy, it's done and I'm happy now. I don't want you crying every-time I tell you something about my past. If there's someone who should be crying, it should be me, but I moved on crying about those moments-"

You pause for a moment, _"At least most of the time, but he doesn't need to know that. I've dumped to much on him as is."_

" _-_ So I don't want you to worry to much about it okay." you finish up.

He just nods, "Even so Bro, if you ever need an ear-" You just ruffle his head fur, "How'd this become about me all of a sudden. We were talking about you and this whole Royalty stick. Is that some of the stuff I miss out on when you, mom, and dad go out together?" He nods again, "Yeah, they go over what is expected of us, meeting monster and helping them with any problems they have."

"Sounds like a drag, so none of that seems to go on when we all go out together, why's that?"

"Oh, mom and dad don't want you to feel as though you should be responsible for Royal matter, but it seem like you've done that anyway. This whole barrier matter is more then enough responsibility as is."

You sigh, "Still they made me part of the family, you don't have to fret over such-" Asriel interjects, "They wanted to, but then all these matters cropped up. They just decided that adding Royal matters would cause you to much stress." You just chuckle, "Seriously Azzy, I fought horrifying creature and they worried about giving me more responsibility to deal with. Compared to that I think it would be a cake walk or pie in mom's case."

"I guess you have a point, but you never tell them much of your past."

"And for good reason Azzy, they'd try even harder to try and shield me even more so."

"I guess we have it hard no matter what we try to do. If your honest it'll make things harder for them and if you keep things from them, then it makes it harder for you."

"Which is why I'm trying to trickle information a little at a time. It helps both sides have time to adjust. Beside, I always have you to listen to me as you do me." Asriel gets up and brushes himself off, "Well we should get home, I think we've been out long enough." He holds out a hand to help you up. You take it and work yourself up, "Sure, but before we head back, I think I was a little rude to the Innkeeper. I don't want to cause an issue for mom and dad. So as much as I don't want to I should go apologies."

Asriel keeps the grip on your hand, "I think you mean we. I sort of got carried away with using magic in town. Guess I got caught up in the moment."

"Well they better expect more trouble from us, we're going to torment them everyday from now on." You give a little roar and use your hands to look intimidating, but failing. Asriel is just laughing, "I don't think that's going to help our cause Bro." You put on a fake pouty face, "You're no fun Azzy, we could be treated like Royalty."

"I'm already treated like Royalty remember." You get a sly grin and tackle him to the ground, "You sure about that, you don't look much like Royalty on your back-" You're flung off by Asriel a few feet behind him, landing perfectly on your feet. Asriel gets up and is grinning, "I'll have your give me proper respect yet Bro." He hurls several fireballs at you, "At this rate I'll be waiting a long time. Want another handicap?" Apparently you got cocky and missed something during Asriel last couple magic sessions.

Several of the fireballs stopped in front of you a detonate, blinding you for a moment. Asriel leaps through the explosion, ready to grapple you, but you use Swift-Step to move out of the way. You watch Asriel momentum send him face first into the ground. "You okay Azzy? That was a neat trick, when did you learn that? I don't think that's something mom would have taught you."

He gets up, sweater and pants covered in dirt, "Learned it by accident one day. I was practicing and was trying to see if I could make a pillar of fire like you did, but instead it blew up in my face, literally. Mom asked how I got so dirty that day."

"Well it would've worked, but you kind of forgot I can move easily out of the way. Your also going to have to explain to mom how you got so dirty." He looks down at his sweater, "Maybe we can get washed up back in Snowdin before we head home. Also I didn't forgot, I was just hoping to catch you off guard."

"You still a ways to go before you can surpris-" In mid-sentence you get tackled to the ground, "You were saying?" You just laugh, "You're learning, but don't let it go to your head." You sit up on your elbows and kiss him on the snootle again. He blushes, "Because I can play dirty myself. Now we both need to get cleaned up. I could get us home and into the bathroom without being seen. We could take a bath-"

A pawed hand pushes your head back down into the ground and gets up off of you,"Think I'll pass on that Bro. Why you always trying to take a bath with me anyway?"

"Just fun teasing you and seeing the embarrassed look on your face, you're so cute, but I won't force you if you don't want to. Though you best watch yourself, one day I may sneak in on-" Asriel starts walking off. "Aw, come on Azzy I'm just kidding." You quickly get up off the ground and catch up with him. You both apologized to Innkeeper and she allowed you to get cleaned up at the Inn.

You both get home and come in smelling the scent of food in the air. After some lunch you both relax with some games and drawings. The day goes by and both of you eventually gets back to your home schooling and magic practice, but after a week goes by you make final preparations for heading to the surface. You visited Gaster and got a list of item he required. He told you just to bring back what you could. You hike up your backpack and go join the rest of you family at the barrier.

You see Asgore, Toriel and Asriel waiting patiently for you as you finish descending down the steps.

You walk over and embrace both Toriel and Asgore in a hug the best you could.

They return the hug, "My child, please be careful out there. If you feel as though your in any trouble please come back immediately."

"Agreed and do not worry if you can not find what you are looking for right away. There's plenty of time to look for information on the surface, you getting back here is our number one concern." Asgore finished.

You pull away, "I'd like to agree with you, but I'm afraid we're on a bit of a time limit. I hate to give you more concern, but I think you should tell you little more before I head out. The organization that did experiments on me are the same ones those robot in the ruins belonged to. I'm sure they were simply dispose of them like myself, but I have a feeling that is far from it. The organization is called, "Dualality" and they're tied in with the current barrier."

Toriel has a grave expression, "My child this is disturbing news, why didn't you tell us back when you told us about the barrier?"

"Mainly because I didn't want to drop this on you all at once and secondly I felt this may change your mind about letting me go. I know this is really sudden, but I'm worried we need deal with this barrier situation out soon or Dualality may become a threat to all monster-kind if left unchecked for to long."

Asgore looks troubled by the news, "I see, that is rather big problem, but if they haven't made a move themselves the it's safe to say they're still lacking something. If they know about the legends, then shouldn't they know they only need seven Souls to remove the barrier?"

"If they did know the requirement to remove the barrier the they'd done so already. I think information like this may have been kept cryptic. If the mages who brought you to the underground were to keep the monsters safe they wouldn't want that knowledge to fall into the wrong hands."

Asgore nods in agreement, "That does make since. Which mean that task at hand is going to be of a challenge for you then before. I guess it's lucky you found what you have first." You think to yourself, " _I wish it was pure luck, but if it wasn't for Yagitha and Ellana's help I'd still be stuck at square one. Though I guess the book mom gave me did also help, I don't think Yagitha would have pointing me to Ellana if I hadn't had it on me."_

Toriel speaks up after you've been silent for a moment, "My child is there anything else you like to ask or tell us before you head out?" You snap out of your thoughts and think about anything else that need to be addressed. "There is more, but I really would rather wait til I get back, if that's okay." They both nod, "Of course, we'll be ready to listen once you return." Asgore finishes. "Unless it's late, then we'll discuss it in the morning." Toriel follow up.

You peer over at Asriel who looks a bit left out, you move next to him and give him a smile. He returns it and you move down and whisper in his ear, "Sorry about dragging this out longer then I intended. I thought long and hard over the week about if I should tell them more or not before I headed out." He whispers back, "It's cool, I'm proud of you Bro. I'm glad you worked up the courage to tell them more." He then takes your hand in his.

Toriel and Asgore look at you both whispering to each other, "What are you both telling each other?". You chuckle, "Nothing, just brothers giving each other some encouragement." They both give you a playful smile, "Of course, I'm sure you two wouldn't be up to something while we are standing right here, right Gorey?" he nods, "Of course not." He give you both a quick wink.

Asriel lets your hand go and you give them all another hug. As you finish your hug with Asriel, "Well Azzy, I'll be back as soon as I can. Hold down the forte for me will ya. Help mom and dad with anything they need and stay safe."

"You stay safe to Bro, remember what I said and come back to us." You grab and pull him in one last big hug and he returns it. You pull away reluctantly, "Well if this departure goes on any longer the entire day will go by before I can do anything. I'll see you all when I get back." You give them a final wave and in a blink of an eye your gone. "That's still so cool, I wish I would do that."

"I don't think so my child, you've already gotten hurt enough without adding super speed into the mix. Now let's all head home, we have some other topics to go over." Asriel mood drops, "Aw, but I thought we finished with everything today." Asgore picks him up and sits him on his shoulder, "Just a few matters we like to go over with you about the Kingdom and the Underground." Asriel sighs reluctantly, "Okay." They all make their way up the stairs as you make your way to where you met Ellana.

* * *

So basically medical issue came up for my mom and I've also been working on turning my spare bedroom into a game room for me and my friends to hang out once a week. We've been gaming elsewhere, but due to complications that isn't available to us anymore. So much of my free time has been going into these two things. Also with the Holidays approaching been keeping an eye out for gifts. There's also some home repair/replacement project I've been helping my parents out with(not me doing the work, not a handyman), by finding someone to give us a good estimate for the work that's needed.

Also my dad is getting ready to retire and needed me to help out with some of his retirement documents(mailing out, faxing and such(busy himself)). Just this week I finally found a bit of time to sit down and start up the next chapter, but the first write up didn't sit well with me. I kept a bit, but re-wrote about 70% of it. Now with that out of the way I'll work on chapter nine, but it may take the same amount of time as it took me to get this chapter out. I just want everyone to know I'm still working on it and more will come. Also I'm a bit late to the party, but happy birthday and one year Anniversary to Undertale. Thank you Toby Fox for such a great game. :D


	9. Chapter 9

Hey everyone,

I know, another chapter so soon, what? This one is a little shorter. So I got this done sooner then even I thought I would. So I hope you enjoy.

Chapter Ten is in the works :D

Please remember to leave feedback, comments, or constructive criticism to either say Hi or how your enjoying the story. Doing so will really show support, help keep me motivated, and let me know that everyone is still interested in the story.

* * *

It only takes you a few minute to reach the empty fields where you stumbled across Ellana's home. You walk forward and expect to find yourself standing in front of the stone steps, but nothing happens. You go forward a bit more, but again nothing happens. " _Why? Why isn't it here? Did Ellana close off the entrance the same way Yagitha did?"_ You keep searching in hopes that you're wrong. You start losing hope and in frustration you call out, "ELLENA!"

Moments pass and nothing happens. Defeated, you begin to walk away, but suddenly a bright light shines and you shield your eye's with your hand. As it diminishes you see something slowly makes it's way into the grassy fields. You walk over to examine what it is and to your surprise it is a parchment of paper rolled up with a seal on it. You bend down to pick it up and unravel the parchment.

You begin to read what is written:

 _"To Broderick, If you have gotten this letter then that means I have moved on already. I'm sorry I could not see you again, but you must understand that our locations were never meant to be found and remain secret. Had Yagitha not been the one to send you my way and you had found the location on your own, then our meeting would have been short. I am glad this was not the outcome. Please do not seek me out._

 _"I wish I knew for certain that from this point forward life will be easier for you, but considering what you told me I fear that trouble will continue to follow you as long as Dualality is still out there. The best I can do for you now is enclose a little more information in this letter. There is an apprentice mage that did not complete his training with one of the master mages. This was over twenty years ago, so his whereabouts are unknown to me and the other mages. The name he went by was Eijamar, but I would suspect that he's change his name since then._

 _"Seek out Eijamar and keep ahead of Dualality the best you can. The other bit of advice I can give you is keep working at your magic, but be careful. I sensed something off when you had brought forth your magic, but I can not tell you what it maybe. If I had more time... No, it to late for what ifs. Just take care of your well-being and tell your family if anything feels off._

 _"Finally I have enclosed a parchment with a spell to use as a last resort. This spell can remove the current barrier, but any protection, even if fictitious, will be lost. I'm sure Dualality has been poking at the barrier, but still doesn't know how it functions. So they have been trying to use other means to gather information on it. Those robot may have been more of a means to do so, but it seems that backfired on them._

 _"Broderick I told you that teaching monsters mage spells is destructive to them, but I should have explained why. It was during the war when one mage decided to teach a monster how to cast our form of magic, but upon completion turned to dust. At the time we couldn't understand why this happened, but the few of us left learned that the strain on the Soul was to much._

 _"Their entire form is comprised of magic and instead of the magic being pulled from the realm of magic, it was pulled directly from the monster himself. We believe in theory that it's possible for a monster to be able to do so, but abandon the research due to the risks involved. The reason I'm telling you this is that's why Eijamar left. He wanted to pursue the idea, but he was forbidding to continue the research._

 _"I wish I could been more help, but is all I could manage before the space was moved. Please do me a favor and destroy this letter once you're finish with it. I rather not take a risk of the information falling into the wrong hands._

 _Your ally and friend,_

 _Ellana."_

You look at the final page and it's in the same runic symbols that are in the books you have. You pull off your backpack, fold it up and place it in one of the books. Replacing the backpack over your shoulders, hold the letter in your hand, flames engulf it in an instant. What little ash that remain flutter to the grass. You smother out the hot ash with your foot and then walk back to the main road. Your not sure as to do next so you head back to Dapplemourne.

You find a cafe and order some tea. You take a seat outside as you begin to ponder what to do next, " _Okay, so I have to find out who this Eijamar is and still find information on Dualality. Problem is I have no other leads beside that. At least most of the barrier issue are taken care of, except the lack of being able to do anything with it. Though as it sound the spell that can remove the barrier is within my limits, otherwise Ellana wouldn't tell me to use it as a last resort."_

You take a sip of you drink and then lean back, _"Now I just need to find a new lead, I have a feeling it would be more easier to tackle the barrier spell then finding two needles in a haystack."_ You sigh and just continue to drink your tea. Once its all gone you slap the sides of your face with you hands to motivate yourself, " _Well sitting here complaining about the situation isn't going to get me anywhere. So time to get to work."_ and with you take off running all over different cities, but the results are less then stellar.

With the sun setting you figure it's best not to push yourself and head back to Mt. Ebott. Upon entering the house your greeted by Asriel, "Bro your home. So how'd it go?" You do your best to give him a smile, but he could tell it was forced, "That bad huh." You give a half-hearted chuckle, "Well it's one day of many. The surface is a big place, but I'm sure with more time I'll find something." You didn't feel comfortable telling even Azzy about the letter left by Ellana.

At that moment Toriel enter the room coming from the kitchen, "My child you're back earlier then expected. I thought you'd be out for a little while longer."

"I could've, but I wasn't having great results. So I decided to call it early for today, I'll pick up on things tomorrow. So is dinner ready?"

"Almost my child. Why don't you get cleaned up and relax until then." You nod and head off to your room. Dropping off your backpack on the floor next to the bed and you the take a seat on your bed. Then you remembered, " _Aw shoot, I forgot to get anything for Gaster while I was out. Oh well, there's always tomorrow."_ Asriel enters the room and closes the door behind him. He walks over and takes a seat next to you.

"So did you really not find anything or is it you didn't want to say anything while in the living room? If you want to talk about anything you found secretly we can do so now." You turn and smile at him. You just ruffle the fur on his head, "Nah, honestly Azzy nothing turned up. Nothing changed from this morning, Still trying to find any whereabouts of Dualality and anything that can help keep us safe." Asriel looks at the floor, "Oh, I guess I'm a little surprised nothing came up. So how was the weather?"

You just laugh, "Really? We hit that low in our conversation? It was sunny Azzy, decent breeze, not much more to really say. I just ended up grabbing a cup of tea at a cafe and ran to different cities and towns."

"So did you get to see Ellana?" That hit you hard, your face darkens and you go to stand up. Asriel place a hand on your shoulder keeping you from doing so, but you don't look at him. "B-Bro, did something happen? Did I say something to hurt your feelings? Oh god, Ellana isn't..." Asriel trails off. You shake your head and in a monotone voices, "No Azzy, she isn't dead, but..." You go quiet and Asriel is still looking at you with worry on his face.

"It's alright Bro, we don't need to talk about it now if you don't want to. How about we just go have some fun before dinner." You just remain silent and unmoving. Asriel didn't know what to do, he hasn't seen you like this for a while, not since you first agreed to see Gaster. Asriel reach out to give you a hug, but you stand up from the bed before he can wrap his arms around you. In the same tone of voice, "Azzy, you go ahead. I'm going to go get cleaned up." and with that you head over and open the door.

Asriel watches you leave the room and grips his shirt near his chest _, "Bro, I'm sorry. Please don't be upset. I just wanted to help, but it seems I made things worse."_ He walks out of the bedroom, but on the way he looks at the front door. He make his way outside and head in the direction of where the barrier is located

You're in front of the sink with the water running, hands gripping tightly against the porcelain as you look in the mirror at you reflection. " _Why the hell am I so upset for, Azzy didn't do anything wrong, he just asked me a simple question. Hell I told him about Ellana, so he has every right to know if I got to see her or not. I just... I'm mad at the fact that every-time I meet_ _someone I want to see again they seem to disappear out of my life. I guess I'm afraid the same is going to happen with Toriel, Asgore, and Azzy, but that doesn't mean I have the right to be an ass."_

Your grip on the sink increase and you hear it crack, looking down you notice fine hair-line cracks in the side of the sink, " _Shit! Now I'm breaking stuff. I got to go clear my head a bit. I should let Toriel know I'm going to step out for a few."_ You splash some water over your face and dry you hands and face with a nearby towel. You turn the sink off and start heading towards the kitchen. As you pass through the living room you notice it's empty.

You look over at the table and no one is there either. You check in the kitchen and the only one you notice is Toriel. Entering you clear your throat to make your presents known, "Mom, have you seen Azzy?" She turns to you and shakes her head, "I thought he was in the other room playing games." That growing concern starts building in you gut, "Um, I'll go check the bedroom. Also is it alright if I step outside for a few, I just want to relax outside until dinner is done."

"Dinner is almost done my child, but if you need please take your phone with you." You nod and make your way to the bedroom again and find it equally as empty. A knot begins to form in you gut, " _Azzy... please don't be doing something stupid. That's my job."_ You grab your phone and rush out the door. You look around and do notice some foot prints that look recent heading away from the house. You follow them until they get difficult to do so.

Taking a moment you gather which possible direction they could be heading and realize that they seem to be heading towards the barrier. " _Damn it, why would you want to... Oh please say I didn't upset you that much."_ You hurry and get to the stairs, making you way down and when you get to the bottom you notice Asriel sitting in the center of the room gazing at the barrier. You let out a breathe you've been holding and make your way over.

His ears perk up, but he doesn't look away. "Azzy, what are you doing down here? This isn't like you to wonder down here alone." You move over and get a look at his face. He looks as though he's been crying a bit, "Azzy... Look I didn't mean to brush you off like I did. When you asked about... Ellana.. I-" you let out a sigh and sit down next to him. "-No, I didn't get to see her. When I got there she moved on, I got a letter from her stating she moved her location and I shouldn't try to find her. I was upset about it and when you brought it up... I'm sorry."

He leans against you shoulder, "It's okay, I mean its got to be hard to finally get to go see her again and find out she isn't there anymore. Did she say why she moved?"

"Yeah, secrecy and all. I assume unless they want to be found they stay hidden, at least that's how I understanding it all." Asriel chuckles, "Guess you and the mages have something in common, you both keep to yourselves." You chuckle and smile, "Touche. I just hope there will be a chance to meet again. I'd like to spend time with Ellana and Yagitha again. Preferably when it doesn't involve a dark mage organization." You wrap an arm over around Asriel, "So ready to go back yet?"

He looks at the barrier for a moment longer before he replies, "Yeah. Bro, you think you can bring me back some picture of the surface? If I can't see it for myself first hand, I'll take anything I can get. So will you do that for me?" You hug him tighter, "I'll do better, I'll get some video footage." He shoots up and looks at you with sparkles in his eye, "Seriously?"

"Seriously." he leaps on top of you in a hug and knocks you on your back, rubbing his cheek against you, "You're the best Bro, I can't wait to see. Can you get some footage of the stars and stuff as well." You're just laughing, "Sure sure, anything you like Azzy. It's the least I can do for how I made you feel."

He pulls back and looks at you, "It's not entirely your fault Bro, I caught you off guard and should've waited. I mean you just got back and all." You run your fingers through his messy head fur, "Let's just call it even then. We should get back before-" and before you could finish your sentence your cell phone rings, "-mom calls." You pull the phone from you pocket, "Hello. yeah. We're on our way back now. Okay, love you too." you end the call and put the phone away.

"Dinners ready, we're both going to have to get cleaned up once we get back, second time myself today." Asriel stands up, followed by you, "Sorry Bro, I didn't mean to get so excited. Just with what little picture of the surface we have down here are old and faded."

"Don't worry about, lets hurry up and get home. I'm starving from all that running around I did today." You both get home and get cleaned up. Dinner is wonderful as usual and you end up spending the rest of the night looking through the book Toriel gave you. Even with the monocle it seems even it can't decipher everything. Asriel enters the room and walks towards you, "What are you... Oh is that the book mom gave you?"

You sit up a little to quickly and the monocle falls to the floor. Luckily it landed on the rug in the center of the room and Asriel bends down to pick it up, "What's this Bro?" You think of how to explain it, "Um, well... have you ever looked at what's written in this book before mom gave it to me?" He just shakes hit head no and you show him a page in the book, "It looks like a bunch of symbols and such. How can you make sense of it?"

"Well, this is a book from one of the mages from long ago. Well Ellana told me that anything important to them is cryptic so no on can read it, with exception to those they trust or if you know how to decipher it." You hold up the monocle, "Ellana gave me this monocle so I could decipher the text, but it seems that it has a limit to what it can do." Asriel holds the monocle to his eye and looks at the book again, "It still looks the same to me." You close the book and grab Yagitha's book from your bag, "Here try this book, I already know it can decipher everything in it."

You open it to the first page and let Asriel look, "It still looks like symbols, am I doing something wrong?" You ask him for the monocle and he hands it to you. Placing it over you eye and the words are clears as day. Then you remember something Ellana told you, " _It's magic locked to me, I'll have to unlock it so that you're able to use it."_ That's right, maybe no one other the you and Ellana can use it, "Sorry Azzy, I forgot that Ellana made it so that I'm the only other person who can use it."

"Oh, well I guess that mean anyone else who tries to use it doesn't see anything different. I think it suits you, having to keep things secret and all." You chuckle, "True, it's probably best that no one else looks through these books anyway." You put the books away along with the monocle, "So what did you come to the room for?"

"I was just seeing what you've been up to, you've been in here for two hours and I thought you might have fallen asleep."

"Nah, I just haven't got to use the monocle on the book I was looking at. I was hoping I might find some clues or even new spells to help me out." Asriel gets up on the bed and sit next to you, "Any luck?"

"Afraid not, as I said it seems that the monocle can only make sense of bits and pieces. The original owner seems to have made it even more difficult to decipher I'm guessing. Though it seem Yagitha knew something of them. When I showed her the book she got upset and asked me where I got it. That's about the time she turned and grab the book she gave me. I wish I got a chance to ask her more, but she booted me out before I had a chance."

"It seems information from that period is mostly lost to time, but it seems there's a little left out there in the world wither it be mages or books. The hardest part is finding it.

"That's why I was really hoping to talk to Ellana again, but seems like when I make some progress I hit a dead-end. You know I've been thinking, there has to be someone who brings people into Dualality. I mean when I was at the lab, there was quite a few people who worked there. If I could find any of the people who recruit new members for them I'll have a lead. I'm sure they won't give me the information willingly, but I'll figure that out when the time comes."

"Your not going to get into a fight and have to hurt anyone are you?" You sigh, "Azzy, these are the people who did a lot of bad things and are the reason monster ended up in Mt. Ebott in the first place."

"I know, but... just promise you won't seriously hurt anyone or worse kill them."

"I'll do what I can Azzy, but I have to make sure word doesn't get back to Dualality. If they find out I'm still alive then it'll cause more trouble for us in the future." Asriel expression turns doleful and he looks at the floor, "I rather no one gets hurt, but this has all been going on longer before we both have been around. It such a fine line to walk, just know you never have to walk it alone."

"I know Azzy and thank you. I don't want to hurt people either, but there are those who do so without remorse. When I see other kids on the surface, some are luck the most they have to worry about is eating vegetables, not getting something they want, or taking naps. I wish when I was growing up that was the least I had to worry about. Sorry, didn't mean to dwell on the past."

Asriel just shakes his head, "It's okay, when you put it like that even being a prince isn't so bad. Sure I've been lonely not having any friends, but I have mom and dad and they always been there for me."

"Still it's not fun being alone, so don't think you don't have the right to complain about the responsibilities you have as a prince. I guess I just envy some, but it shouldn't be about who has it better or worse. Everyone perspective of a situation is different. All we can do is move forward and hope for the best."

"That's true, I guess everyone has something they don't like or find unfair, but the situation has been better for me since I got a brother to share all my problems with." You blush slightly, "Heh, same here Azzy. Though I think we can talk more about this another time, I'm going to turn in early, how about you?"

"I'm not tired yet, maybe I'll go take a walk and then when I get back I'll take a bath to unwind." He give you a hug, which you return, then he gets up and leaves the room, closing the door behind him. Once you're alone again you reach into your backpack for the scroll you got today. Looking over the text you wonder if this would truly remove the barrier. You wish that you had something to test it out on, but would it work on anything else other then the barrier spell.

You cast a light spell and place the sphere of light on the desk in the room. You begin chanting the spell on the scroll, making it's target the light spell and upon completion the light vanishes. " _Huh, so it cancels out magic. That's cool, but the only problem is the cast it take a bit to much time. So using it in a situation like combat wouldn't work. Also if I had to evacuate all the monster it would have to be before danger reached Mt. Ebott."_

You put the scroll away and get ready for bed, " _Well more wild goose chases tomorrow, but maybe I'll catch me a goose and roast it for information. In a manner of speaking."_ You snicker and it's followed by a yawn. You crawl into bed and pull the covers over yourself. As soon as your head hits the pillow you out like a light.


End file.
